Golden Age, January 31, 1934

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Golden Age

A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE

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in this issue

HORSE THIEVES

POWER TRUST "EFFICIENCY”

EVENTS IN CANADA

SEEKING VINDICATION OF JEHOVAH’S NAME

COLUMBIA’S PALSIED HAND HIGH COURT REBUKES SUMMIT MEDICAL SLAVERY BILL TWO GREAT MYSTERIES giiiiiiiiiiiijiiiigiiigigigggigigmgiggimiiimiigimiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiu every other WEDNESDAY five cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign 1.25

Vol. XV - No. 375 January 31,1934

CONTENTS

-«xG). ... ■ ....... . . ■ — — ■■ —--

LABOR AND ECONOMICS

First Ones to Be Relieved . . . 276

Horrors of Stepney.....277

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

Seeking Vindication of Jehovah’s Name.....268

Children Released from Industry 274

On Squaring of Mixed Numbers . 274

Too Much of a Funeral Notice . 275

How to Elevate English Language 275

The Experiment with Prohibition 276

The American News in 900 Words 277

Gas Masks for Danish Civilians . 277

FINANCE—COMMERCE!—TRANSPORTATION

Horse Thieves of High Finance 259

Power Trust “Efficiency” . . 262

Los Angeles’ Efficient System , 269

Racket on Italian Bakeries . . 276

The Embattled Farmers .... 278

Raising Prices of Farm Products . 279

Phenix Dairy of Houston, Texas . 279

Reconstruction Finance Corporation 279

Governor Langer’s Unusual Powers 279

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN

Events in Canada.....263

Ex-Service Men Return Medals . 267

Summit Rebuked by Supreme Court 271

England May Have National Police 277 £200 per Minute for War . . . 277

AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY

The A.A.A.A........278

Soothing the Farmers in Ohio . . 278

Subsistence Farms.....279

Tennessee River Developments . 282

Huge Artificial Sea in Montana . 282

SCIENCE AND INVENTION

England’s Flying Battleship . . 277

France’s Enormous Military Force 277

Irregularities in Cosmic Ray . . 282

Wastefulness in Nature .... 282

All Mankind.......282

HOME AND HEALTH

Tugwell Medical Slavery Bill . 280

Puncturing Perfect Ear Drums . 2S0

The Nation Dying Mentally . . 281

Assistant Told the Truth . . . 281

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

“Back to Church”—Under Guid

ance of Columbia's Palsied Hand 270

Let them Return......272

Military Symbolisms in Austria . 272

Demons Entrap Ex-Elder . . . 273

Truth Gradually Sinking In . . 274

The Watchtower Programs . . 274

Pioneering in South Dakota . . 275

From One of World War Soldiers 281

Two Great Mysteries .... 283

The Degree of B.D......287

Published every other Wednesday by GOLDEN AGE PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.

117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., U.S.A.

Clayton J. Woodworth President Nathan H. Knorr Vice President

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oL? Golden Age

Volume XV Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, January 31, 1934 Number 375

The Horse Thieves of High Finance

OF ALL the terrible excoriations Big Business has received at the hands of the statesmen of our time, nothing has ever been published that equals that contained in Judge Rutherford’s book Vindication. God is about to vindicate His word and His name and to establish in the earth a reign of absolute righteousness, which is the desire of every honest heart.

Before that reign in all its power and glory can become manifest to all men it is necessary that Jehovah’s enemies lick the dust in Armageddon. In Vindication, Book Two (the work is in three volumes), 199 pages are set apart to the delineation of these enemies of the great and true and just and only God. The chapters discussed in those pages are Ezekiel chapters 25 to 32 inclusive.

The last of those pages are a discussion of chapter 32 of Ezekiel’s prophecy. It is entitled “End of Oppression”. It is an arraignment of the money power, and covers 38 pages. In those pages there are 75 paragraphs. We cannot quote them all, but we quote one, so that the reader may judge for himself of the cumulative effect of the other 74:

Commerce, or Big Business, dominates everything on the land. It is in the saddle, and dictates the terms to the people. Big Business owns practically all the banks and the money in them. It receives on deposit what little cash the common people have, and then uses that cash for its own selfish purposes. Big Business owns and controls the newspapers, the magazines, and other means of advertising itself to promote and carry on its propaganda schemes for exploiting the people and creating public opinion. Big Business owns and controls the armies and all of their equipment, including the air fleets. Big Business owns and controls the legislative and executive branches of the governments. It manipulates, elects and selects its own men to public office. It owns and controls the big lawyers, the judges, the courts, and the officers and seiwants that serve thereat. It owns and controls the big scientists, the engineers, the planners, architects and constructors of public works. Big Business owns and controls the majority of the colleges and the universities, and even the public or common schools. It owns the radio and controls the music that goes on the air, and the musicians that play. Big Business owns and controls “organized Christianity”, and in particular the clergy that serve the same, and also other religions that Satan operates amongst the people and causes them to practice. Big Business owns and controls the natural supply of raw material out of which the clothing for the people is made and the fuel and facilities by which the people are furnished heat and light. Big Business owns and controls the patent rights for all the important machinery used for commerce or trade and also which the people have occasion to use. Big Business owns the people and tells them what they may drink, what they may wear, where they may educate their children, and what they may study, and what they must hear and believe. All of this is Satan’s organization, visible to human eyes.

When you have considered that paragraph for a few weeks you will wonder what there is left to say, and what the other 74 paragraphs could possibly contain. Well, in the paragraph just quoted Judge Rutherford is merely clearing his throat, to get down to business. It is, so to speak, merely a sip at the gallon of boiling-hot coffee next on the program.

At length he gets to going, and in the subhead “National Banking Act” are ten pages in which he proceeds to pay his respects to the horse thieves of high finance. Here again we are restricted as to space, but present just one more paragraph, to whet your appetite. He says:

The National Banking Act of the United States provided for the establishment of national banks in the following manner: In a city of more than six thousand population such a bank could be started with a capital of one million dollars. Government bonds were then selling for fifty cents on the dollar, and with five hundred thousand dollars in cash one million dollars of the United States government bonds could be bought. These bonds must be deposited with the government at Washington as security for currency furnished by the government to the bank organized. These bonds deposited with the government

belonged, of course, to the bank, and the government paid the bank an annual interest of six percent in gold coin on one million dollars of bonds, which had cost the bank only half a million, and which was therefore equivalent to twelve percent interest on the amount invested by the private interests. In consideration of this deposit of bonds the government then issued currency to the bank up to ninety percent of the par value of the bonds, or nine hundred thousand dollars, which currency must be signed by the president of the bank before it was used and was therefore in fact the money issued by the bank. This was a subterfuge to get around the Constitutional provision for issuing money. This nine hundred thousand dollars so issued in currency, the bank could loan at ten percent interest for thirty or sixty days, the interest payable in advance, of course, which amounted to twelve percent on the nine hundred thousand dollars. The bank, of course, received deposits from the people and was permitted to loan such deposited money for its own private use. The national bank, therefore, was really a gold mine. Rothschild Brothers were then the great money kings of Britain. Those money changers conspired with their allies in the United States in putting through the United States Congress the National Banking Act.

Simpson Confirms the Foregoing

John A. Simpson, one-time bank president, but now president of the National Farmers Union, Kankakee, Illinois, is one of the American statesmen who knows the truth of the statements above made, and has the courage to proclaim it. From one of his public addresses, given over the radio, we publish excerpts in confirmation which we are sure will be of interest to all our readers. Mr. Simpson said, in part:

A good many years ago I was president of the First National Bank of Weatherford, Oklahoma. One day, as president of that bank, I lent this government $25,000. Figuratively speaking, I laid $25,000 of the bank’s money on the counter of the secretary of the treasury in Washington. He laid beside that $25,000 for the bank this government’s note bearing interest at a certain rate, payable quarterly, the note running a certain period of years. The note was a government bond with coupons attached. I left the bond with the secretary of the treasury and asked to have the Government furnish me $25,000 of blank national bank notes. The Government very obligingly ran these blank notes in the sum of $25,000 off their printing presses. They were not money until I signed John A. Simpson right over where the Government had printed on each blank note, “President of the First National Bank of Weatherford, Oklahoma.” When I signed these notes there was just as much money in the vaults of the First National Bank of Weatherford, Oklahoma, as there was when I took $25,000 out to lend the Government. In other words, I had just as much money to lend out to merchants and farmers at Weatherford at high rates of interest, and at the same time Uncle Sam, every three months, sent the interest on his note that I had left with him in Washington. Men and women of the radio audience, when Uncle Sam has paid the last coupon on that bond I left with him, he will have taxed you folks listening in, together with other citizens of this country, more than $25,000 and paid it to the First National Bank of Weatherford, Oklahoma, in order to have me sign and make money for the people of the United States to use.

Every time you look at a national bank note, if it is a $10 bill, you can be sure that this government paid the bank that issued that note $10 in interest to have the banker sign it to make money for the people to use. If it is a $100 national bank note, this government taxed the people sufficient to pay the bank $100 in interest for the people to have that bill to use as a medium of exchange. That is your national bank system. You have been told by these cruel, inhuman, criminal international bankers, through the press of the country, that this was a sound money system.

In England for a thousand years it was against the law to charge interest or usury for the use of money. Sometimes during that thousand years the law was so severe that the person found guilty of collecting interest forfeited his property and his children were not only disinherited, but disfranchised. The law at one time provided that a usurer would not be protected from mob violence. In the fourteenth century, under King Edward the Third, usury was a crime, punishable by death. There are English court decisions in which it is stated usurers are ranked with murderers; that taking of money by interest was no better than taking a man’s life.

The Old-Style Horse Thief

There is an old saying that “nothing succeeds like success”. I remember, 30 years ago, when I came to the state of Oklahoma as a homesteader on a quarter section of land, the business of horse stealing was such a success that those engaged in it were recognized and, to a large extent, respected. Back in those days in Oklahoma many times I have stood in the grocery store where I traded or in the bank where I did business and asked the merchant or banker, as the case might be, the name of some man just passing. He would tell me, and I would ask him, “What is his business?” Without any facial expression of saying something unusual he would say, “He is a horse thief.” I found these horse thieves had made a success to the extent that they had a business standing with the banker, they could borrow money like other business men; they enjoyed social equality with other business men of the town; and they attended church, served as deacons, passed the basket, and were themselves most liberal contributors.

Under the principle that “nothing succeeds like success’’, these men who practiced collecting interest finally conceived the method by which they not only made their business respectable, but made it legal. With blood on their hands they went to legislative bodies and had bills passed that arbitrarily declared above a certain rate was usury and unlawful, while below that rate was interest and lawful. Such laws simply legalized robbery and murder. It legalized the destruction of governments. It legalized the pauperizing of untold millions. It legalized the planting of an economic cancer upon the breast of a nation. In this country that cancer has eaten deep into the prosperity of our people. It has eaten so deep that today recognized authorities estimate the total interest-bearing obligations of the people, the corporations and the various divisions of government to be even greater than the present value of all real and chattel property in the United States. That interest cancer today takes an annual toll from the people of this nation equal to one-third of the national annual income. It is only a matter of a few years, if we permit the monster interest to continue eating into the vitals of this nation, until it will take all the national annual income to pay the annual interest obligation.

The federal government, alone, owes today more than $22,000,000,000. This is an increase of $6,000,000,000 during the last four years. It has increased over a billion dollars since the fourth of March. There are now proposed further increases of nearly $4,000,000,000, which means within a few months our national government’s interest-bearing debt will have passed the high mark of the war period. It will mean this terrible interest cancer will be taking from the treasury of the United States, annually, more than one billion dollars.

The More Efficient Modern One

You people listening in at this moment, I want you to know that if the farmers of this nation had all been members of the Farmers’ Union, this session of Congress would never have provided for further interestbearing obligations on the part of the government.

Just a few days ago the secretary of the treasury advised that Uncle Sam wanted to borrow a billion dollars so that Uncle Sam might put some men to work building public improvements that become new national wealth. I say to you that it is a crime for this government to pay interest to bankers for that billion dollars to have them sign the money that this government prints. The Government prints the money and should sign it and save the taxpayers the burden of paying interest to bankers to have them sign it. Under present plans, as I have said, this government will soon have outstanding $26,000,000,000 of interestbearing bonds. Under the terms of these bonds, the Government will, in 25 years, pay $52,000,000,000. If those in charge of our government had the courage to sign their own money, it would just take $26,000,000,000 of the taxpayers’ money to pay the obligation.

It is a disgrace and a shame that the horse thieves of finance—the Millses, the Morgans, the Meyerses, the Mitchells, the Mellons—are still counted respectable and called into Washington by departments of government to get their advice on what is good for the 120,000,000 common people of this country. You 120,000,000 common people are the ones to blame that you permit a handful of ultrarich to rob you of a billion dollars a year of interest. You ex-service boys listening in, they take from your compensation and hand it to these pirates of finance in the form of interest.

I want you to know that the Economic League is made up of such men as Mellon, Morgan, Mills, Meyers and Mitchell. They were the ones that suggested the economy program, passed at this session of Congress. They took two or three hundred million from you ex-service boys. You boys who worked for $1.00 a day and bared your breasts to the bullets, bombs and shells. You faced poison gas and all the hellish instruments for destruction of life that the ingenuity of man could invent while the Mellons, the Morgans, the Millses, the Meyerses and the Mitchells were heaping millions upon millions. They commercialized your blood and the tears of your mothers. Their Economic League has, by law, robbed you of your compensation and added it to their already swollen, ill-gotten fortunes.

It is out of the unchristian interest system that such crimes come. This devilish interest system is responsible for our international troubles. The Mellons, the Morgans, the Meyerses and the Mitchells and their kind have lent to foreign nations more than $17,000,000,000. These inhuman usurers have conspired with foreign governments to rob the taxpayers of this nation of the $11,000,000,000 foreign countries still owe the Government. The obligations of foreign countries amount to about $500 to the average family. These international bankers, in order to make it easier to collect the $17,000,000,000 foreign countries owe them, are, through their conspiracy, endeavoring to have the $500 they owe each family in this country canceled.

The unchristian interest system caused the Mellons, the Morgans, the Millses, the Meyerses, the Mitchells, to evade income taxes to the extent of nearly $4,000,000,000. Al Capone, for evading income taxes to the extent of a few thousand dollars, sits in a felon’s cell in Atlanta. These income tax evaders are the little handful of men that you 120,000,000 common people let run the affairs of this nation. You let them make the laws. You let an Andy Mellon administer those laws for twelve long years. I wonder if the most of you are not getting what is coming to you. I wonder how much greater the punishment must be to you before you will rise up in the spirit of real Americanism and overthrow these gangsters of finance.

Power Trust “Efficiency” By Pennsylvania Correspondent

CENTURIES ago James, a servant of Jehovah, foretold a condition that would exist between the laborer and his employer during “the last days” of Satan’s evil world, and legislation recently put in force would seem to indicate that even the lawmakers of this country are beginning to realize that James knew whereof he spoke, and that the laborer has been, and is being, shamelessly defrauded at every turn.

Most of the public know that this is true, in a general way, but they are largely unacquainted with specific ways and means whereby this is accomplished, as open fraud is seldom practiced upon employees, by large corporations. Instead, the projected raids upon the pay envelopes of their employees are so glossed over, sugar-coated and mathematically complicated that the individual affected is ready to swear that he is actually the recipient of a favor.

A good look at some of the tricks and subterfuge used by many of the large corporations to reduce their employees to the state described in James 5:1-5 will, this writer believes, be of interest to many readers of The Golden Age. Doubtless many of them have been, at one time or another, the victims of such practice, but not from the hand of an employer who has developed the art of chicanery, subterfuge and whitewash to the high degree of perfection as has the outfit here concerned, The Power Trust.

The succeeding observations were made at first hand over a period of several years, and can be amply substantiated in fact by the individuals concerned; and though names and places are readily at hand, for obvious reasons they will not here be mentioned.

Using the Rules Against the Men

Every large corporation has published rules whereby their employees are supposed to be governed. A certain steam-electric generating plant has such a set of rules, and a copy is given to each new employee when beginning his term of service with the company. No deviation from these rules is tolerated on the part of the employee; but on the part of the employer— Ah! That’s another matter, entirely!

Even as the wicked are judged in Luke 19: 22, ‘out of their own mouth,’ so it will be in this article, as we proceed to enumerate their violation of their own rules, and disclose how these rules, originally designed for the employee’s benefit, are used to defraud them under existing conditions.

Most of us are acquainted with that, sometimes unconscionable, personage, the efficiency engineer. To him is usually entrusted the job of twisting every rule that might be of benefit to an employee, around in the opposite direction, and just what a job these gentlemen (?) of the hardened conscience can make of this will be shown in what follows. Now, let’s have a good look at their handiwork!

Company Rule 2: “In consideration of the 15-minute overlap of watches (8-hour shifts) operating attendants will be given an extra day’s time (8 hours) at the end of the month on the recommendation of the chief operator in each individual case. Whether or not he receives this bonus is determined by his attendance, punctuality, attention to duties and similar conditions.”

Stealing 15 Minutes a Day

This means that each worker is merely required to be on the job 15 minutes before the time for him to start work, which allows the man relieved to explain any unusual conditions to his relief before going off duty, thus safeguarding the company’s machinery. For this safeguard, the “bonus” is considered to be a remuneration.

As only efficiency engineers can do it, the possibilities offered by this rule for stealing 15 minutes’ actual work from the forty-odd workers was immediately grasped. The process of accomplishing this was simple. His interpretation of this rule was duly posted for future guidance, and was substantially this: ‘Employees must be at work 15 minutes before the hour, in order for this extra day’s pay to be given.’ By way of clarification to the reader: This meant that an operator temporarily working on maintenance, fitting pipe, for instance, must be at work fitting pipe 15 minutes before his working day started.

Now oil up your mental arithmetic, gentle reader, and let’s see just what the employer does give, under, let us say, Smith’s ruling. An operator works 28 days per month; 28 times hour equals 7 hours, extra, worked, under the new interpretation. A day’s time equals 8 hours; 8 minus 7 equals 1, hour given. Tsk! Tsk! And they said a day’s time (8 hours) would be given! This could not be a deliberate mistake. Or is it?

Well, you say, that’s one hour they are given, anyway. But hold, brother! Had you considered the joker contained in the last sentence of the above rule ? Here’s how that works out; and it can be attested by practically every man in the plant.

Bringing Home the Bacon

The time card shows perfect punctuality. Your attention to duty is nigh faultless. Your ‘'similar conditions”— Ah! What eyes those so-called “efficiency engineers” have got! And what ears, too! The pay envelope is short that day’s pay. You go into the office and tackle the big shot for an explanation, and here’s what you get: “You made some sarcastic remarks about the management’s being too cheap to replace some burned-out light bulbs.” (What matter if 36 were out, by actual count, in one department?) Another protests that he has been robbed, and gets this one: ‘You remarked, outside the plant, that the First Aid cabinet was in a helluva shape.” (There was not so much as a piece of adhesive tape to bandage a half-cutoff thumb.) And even this, though decent people will doubt it: “You were off three days to your mother’s funeral.” (The days off were without pay, but the all-important 15 minutes extra was not worked. See?) And so on, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

For these terrible misdemeanors they steal not only the one hour they promise to give, but seven others with it that you actually worked, so the poor workman has much the same devilish thing pulled on him as the man described in Matthew 12:45, where the one devil not only went back, but took seven other devils with it to plague the man. Truly, ‘the last state of both these men is worse than the first’; but that’s the devil of it.

Stealing the Cost of Repairs

And now we take up the next little gem, which is Rule 3: “Time and a half will be credited for time in excess of the regular scheduled hours, except such as may be due to failure of men to relieve each other on time, and for any time during the monthly three-day leave. Straight time only will be paid for work during vacations.” Look this one over well before we proceed with the efficiency engineer’s distortion of it, to the defrauding of the worker. Note that only three days’ leave is allowed for one month. What matter if Jehovah God foresaw that man needed one day’s rest in every seven? The Power Trust says, No! What do you think we are?

The last sentence of Rule 3 is not in italics in the book, but it may as well have been, for our old friend the efficiency engineer just could not overlook the possibilities in that. After tremendous effort, which must have given him at least half the headache it later gave the employees, it was changed to substantially this: ‘Straight time only will be paid for any kind of work, at any time of day or night.’ Where is the steal in this? you say. We shall have to dig deep to find it, but it is there!

No Extra Pay for Extra Work

Following general practice everywhere, at the time, the working force was cut to a minimum with a vengeance. Consequently, there was but a definite number of men for a definite amount of work, and as long as things went right there was no increase in the amount of work per man. But when things went wrong, someone must work overtime to make any necessary repairs. When this overtime was worked, the company’s solicitude for their health was invoked to compel them to take time off, without pay, for the overtime worked. See it now? You don’t! Well, under the original intent of the rule, if they had to take time off instead of getting paid, they would rest the overtime worked, plus half the amount; which is considered necessary to regain strength expended under the circumstances. These men’s work must be done by someone while they are off duty; obviously by someone aside from the remaining force, in order not to increase the amount of work per man the remaining force already have. No additional help is forthcoming, however, and the work of the remaining force is made so much the harder, as this extra work is absorbed by them. Result: The extra work is a free gift to the company. Neat, isn’t it? Saves hiring and paying other needed men. What’s that about the NRA? Say, listen! Jehovah God tells this bunch to give a man one day’s rest in seven, and they ignore Him! Do you think they will honor the dictum of an earthly organization, when they do not honor that of Jehovah? All right, have it your own way, then!

Defrauding the Operators

On to the next fraud, which is Rule 5: “An operating man who is temporarily or irregularly working in the Maintenance Department will continue to be paid on the Operating Department basis. If he works in the Maintenance Department for more than seven consecutive days he will be transferred to the maintenance payroll and will be paid thereafter on the Maintenance Department basis.” You have probably noticed that Rule 4 is skipped; but don’t let that fool you. There is fraud in it too, but it is of minor importance, as it merely says that they ■will pay overtime at the rate of time and a half for all time in excess of 219 hours per month. Certainly they don’t! Now you are catching on!

Now, Rule 5 is the prize theft of all, and requires the skill of a Philadelphia lawyer, almost, to ferret out the fraud. Nevertheless, with minor misgivings, we go resolutely on with it, hoping that the fraud can be made clear with the aid of the less brilliant intellect at our disposal.

To understand it, a short explanation of the difference between Operating and Maintenance conditions and pay is necessary. Maintenance men work 9 hours a day; Saturday afternoons and Sundays off, as well as all holidays. According to rule, time and a half will be paid for work done at a time when Maintenance men are supposed to be off duty. Maintenance work is recognized, in the company’s rules, to be much the harder work, therefore they work a less number of hours per month, namely 210, compared with the operator’s 219 hours per month. During temporary shutdowns (at high-water periods, which are largely seasonal) operators are required to do maintenance work, but are not transferred to the Maintenance payroll no matter how long they do maintenance work. The rule, you will remember, says they will be after seven consecutive days. Let’s see just how badly an operator is defrauded when he works one month on maintenance work, without being transferred to that payroll:

Operator 8 lira, per day 219 hrs. per mo. 3 days off $125

Maintenance 9 hrs. per day 210 hrs. per mo. 7 days off $125 Now suppose they were as good as their word and paid this operator for his month’s work at the Maintenance rate. The result would be this:

Extra pay for 4 Saturday afternoons .... 4 x $1.20 = $ 4.80 Extra pay for 4 Sundays ........................... 4x 2.50= 10.00

Extra pay for 1 holiday .............................. lx 2.50= 2.50

Extra pay to help pay a big dividend .................... $17.30

Gouging Dividends Out of the Men

The decided advantage of not transferring operators to the Maintenance payroll is very obvious when the above result is multiplied by some 35, operators who work maintenance for an average of four months out of a year. In the year 1932, when honest employers everywhere were losing money, operators worked five months at one stretch, on maintenance, without any transfer’s being made, and that same year this outfit pays the highest dividends in its history. Who paid those high dividends, then? Brother James prepared the answer centuries ago: 'whose wages are kept back by you, by fraud.’

The steam electric station here concerned is an auxiliary source of power to two hydroelectric plants, and the cost of keeping its operating force on the job the year around is figured in, and helps to make, the high rate per kilowatt hour to the consumer. In the year 1932, when the general disintegration of the Devil’s organization became unmistakably apparent to the Power Division of his crowd, no other means could apparently be found to keep those precious dividends at the highest level in history than to lay off about one-third of the working force, and compel the remainder to absorb this work at no increase in pay. It required some very high-class salving of outraged feelings to put this one over on the workers, but it was put across, and how!

Raids on the Men Deliberately Planned

These raids upon the old pay envelope were always tried out in the steam station, and if there were no serious hitches, they were later imposed on the other departments. The reason for this was that the efficiency engineer was holding his first big job there, and the world had yet to be 'set on fire’ by him in his present capacity. Therefore he was anxious to show the big boys just what he could do, and the big boys knew it.

The station was shut down, with no definite information forthcoming as to how long this would last. From a force of some 35 men, 14 were removed from the payroll, ranging in rank from chief operator all the way down to janitor. An additional scare was then thrown into those remaining by forcing some to take one month off, without pay, and others from five to nine days off, also without pay. Those who were left were put on Maintenance work, paid on an Operating basis.

Now it was time for the salve from the efficiency engineer. The men were told that the company was losing money, and to make ends meet it was necessary to get along on a skeleton force, and if the boys did not care to absorb the additional work, the plant might be closed up tight. This was the equivalent of saying ‘Work one-third harder than you have been, or out you go’. This “reassuring^’ admonition was calculated very nicely, in tempo, to fit right in with a somewhat payless payday. One operator drew $3.52 for two weeks’ work. One Maintenance foreman drew 10 cents. Another drew merely a notice that $9.62 was still due the company. All skilled labor drawing such pays, in the Power Industry? Yes, reader, and in the same year, don’t forget, of the highest dividends in the company’s history. You see there were deductions for rent, coal, insurance, medicine, stores supplies, and, oh yes! company stock! And what was the effect of a few such pays upon the recipients? Why, these skilled operators and mechanics were now ready to absorb any and all kinds of work: cleaning, scrubbing floors, handling ashes, anything, and that is precisely what they got; xor the 55-year-old janitor was laid off, and the ash man with him.

Hypocritical One-sided “Efficiency”

As the boys dug into this extra work with a will, they were convinced by the efficiency engineer’s line of chatter that they were doing the company a much needed favor, and were thereby making their jobs more secure. Alas, and also alack! This “efficient” person who so advised them never seemed to lend a hand with the dirty work, nor was his income diminished in the slightest degree, to any of the boys’ knowledge.

After the boys had ‘taken it on the chin’ they wondered just why this man was apparently in so solid with the company, when he took no reduction in pay nor helped with the dirty and extra work in the company’s “hour of distress”. Now they wonder no more, for they know; and it’s a sad, sad story. He was the tool of the big boys that was used to steal this extra work from them, thus enabling the company to pay the highest dividends of its history, in the year 1932. The only thing the boys wonder about now is whether Jeremiah 25:34 includes efficiency engineers who are without even a shred of conscience, along with “the principal of the flock”, which they know takes care of the big boys.

Hypocrisy and insincerity are not alone confined to efficiency engineers, but are practiced by the higher-ups also, to the hurt of their employees. Sometimes they are caught fred-handed’, too, as the succeeding incidents will show. These incidents show no monetary fraud practiced upon the workmen by the officials concerned, but are glaring examples of hypocrisy and insincerity, and are related here, to your amusement, we hope.

Men Penalized for Honesty

Safety meetings were held each month, and all employees not otherwise engagged (let that spelling alone) were required to attend. It was the privilege and duty of any one of them knowing of an unsafe condition or practice to obtain the floor and tell his fellows about it, that it might be remedied if possible. Before certain things happened, the employees respected Safety meetings more than any other institution of the company. One courageous employee (fifteen years in service, now discharged) told of the company-operated ferry running with a drunken engineer, 30 passengers aboard, and only one life-preserver on the boat. Another told of three men who reported for work in a drunken condition (company’s penalty, immediate dismissal), and upon the matter’s being reported to the superintendent the reply was: “Oh, let them alone! The work has to be done.”

Now these two items reflected terribly on the respective heads of these departments, and something had to be done about it. And so, what ? In the official’s own words, the employees were turning these meetings into “bolshevik meetings”, and it was speedily arranged that thereafter only foremen would be allowed to make Safety reports at these meetings.

The day came when this “outraged” head of the department inaugurated a competition among the various departments, to see which one could go through an entire year without having a serious accident. Accordingly, the boys were given a long-winded dissertation, by this official, on the evils of “horseplay” while on duty; adding that anyone caught indulging therein during this competition would be summarily dealt with. A company rule on this says, also, that it will not be tolerated. Came the elaborate poster for all to note the progress of the competition, having little aeroplanes marked with the name of each department and moving upward for each month that the respective department showed no accident to any employee. Hooray! The steam station was ahead, with a perfect record! The boys had strained mightily to keep out of the clutches of Old Man Accident, and had made a splendid job of it. The competition was almost over and they would most surely win! But why go on with it?—the little aeroplane marked “Steam Station” crashed. He who would deal summarily with any “horseplay” on the part of employees seriously injured his ankle ‘in line of duty’ wrestling with the stock clerk. Horseplay? Tish, tish! And was it mentioned in Safety meeting, how this happened? What do you think?

*The Next Man to Get Hurt’

Now just in case that you may be forming the idea that the efficiency engineer at least would not be guilty of such a trick, we shall have to relate this one, which is amply vouched for by those present. He was now made chief of the works. The force was at a minimum, and the work was heavy and urgent. Several men were already off with minor injuries, and one poor workman had just inadvertently placed a hand into a coal feeder and had two fingers snipped off for his mental lapse. The rage of the “big shot” was something to behold, as visions of being forced to hire “enough” men to do the work confronted him. “The next man that gets hurt, through carelessness, gets fired,” yelled the “big shot”; and quakingly his men dug yet harder into their tasks.

Now, three or four men have quite a time moving about a ton of iron that is all in one piece, and the three or four who were doing just that when, let us call him, Smith came on the scene, were no Titans. They had taken up some plates in the floor of an elevated platform and neglected to replace them immediately. Could this “efficient” person see these men straining and tugging and not getting anything done for the money? “Gi’me that bar, there! Now come on, heave, you guys!” The bar slipped; “big shot” dived eight feet onto a concrete floor, on his head, and went out like a light. Put this down to his credit: that he was ashamed to show his face to that gang of men for some time. But don’t fail to put this to his discredit, also: that he has failed, to this day, to keep his word and fire himself.

The very least these two men could have done to retain a measure of respect from the men under them would have been to apologize for being such a discredit to men who are trying to go by the company’s own rules, and work carefully. But to date, this has not been done; nor will it be, we strongly suspect, until Jehovah God takes away the stony heart of man, and gives him a heart of flesh, and teaches him to keep rules and regulations that are just and right, as in Ezekiel 11:19-21. Read it, ye Smiths, and ye so-called “big shots”.

(We are not prophesying, but rise to remark that if, for rendering this vital public service, the foregoing writer loses his job, we opine that the man responsible will lose something more.—Ed.)

Events in Canada By Our Canadian Correspondent

TDECAUSE of their zeal in distributing in -C) Quebec city some 45,000 pamphlets telling the good news of Jehovah’s incoming kingdom and of His purpose to destroy Satan’s organization, thirty of Jehovah’s witnesses were arrested and charged with “having a part in a seditious conspiracy”. In due course they appeared for a preliminary hearing, which resulted in twenty-four being dismissed because of lack of evidence to identify them, while six were sent up for trial at the Spring Assizes. In giving his finding Judge Fitzpatrick said:

“It is not necessary that there be an open attack or that this attack be directed against the government before sedition may be proved. Those persons are guilty of sedition who disturb the peace, quiet, order and repose of citizens, those who introduce a discordant note in what must be a harmonious society.

“In this city it must be remembered that Catholics and Protestants, French-speaking and English-speaking citizens, live side by side in perfect harmony. All are respectful of the laws and the institutions under which they live.

“Into that picture, however, are injected these pamphlets which are inimical to religion, in which priests and legislators are accused of being the tools of Satan and in which the coming of a kingdom of which no one had previously heard is heralded without any kind of justification.

“These pamphlets are for the most part the writings of a United States citizen, Judge Rutherford, and have been translated into French so that they might be made more easily understood by the majority of our population.”

Spread in the Price of Steak

That there is too much spread between what the producer gets and what the consumer pays is made very clear in the following Canadian Press dispatch:

Professor W. J. Carlyle, manager of the Prince of Wales ranch near High River, Alta., came to the Royal Winter Fair today with a heated word or two about the price of sirloin steak on train diners.

He paid $1.50 for a steak on the diner of the train in which he traveled east, he said, and “we couldn’t get more than two cents a pound for the beef from which that steak was carved.

“The head waiter told me they had to pay 42 cents per pound for sirloin, and he showed me his bill. That spread is too much.’’

Feverish Preparations for War

A news dispatch from Ottawa appearing in the Free Press Prairie Farmer says:

War clouds hanging over Europe are displaying a silver lining for Canada, but the grim implications of the millions of dollars’ worth of nickel now pouring out of our export ports, destined for armament manufacturers of Germany, Netherlands and France, are not escaping the attention of the Canadian government.

There is no word here of governmental action to curb this export trade, although it is realized that Canadian nickel is going directly into the production of the weapons with which Europe is arming herself.

Press dispatches Wednesday quote the figures on nickel exports for the first six months of the fiscal year and it is learned at the bureau of statistics that exports in October will be still higher. Private advices received by the cabinet are to the effect that Canadian nickel producers in the past few weeks have received large additional orders.

Europe is arming with furious speed, and one of the essential means to arm is coming from Canadian mines. Cabinet ministers and senior government officials here decline to comment on this new development. It is explained that so far the purchases of nickel have been carried on by private companies without known governmental assistance.

Canada Willing to Disarm

Concerning Canada’s army the Montreal Star states:

Canada’s representative at Geneva has notified the World Disarmament Conference that this dominion is willing to accept 20,801 as the maximum peace-time strength of her military establishment. We may congratulate ourselves at least upon being precise. A careless nation might have plumped for the round figure 20,000, and a greedy one might have made it 21,000. But no! Canada requires a£nd will insist upon the right to twenty thousand, eight hundred and one defenders.

Who is the one? In certain republics, of course, the one would be the private and the twenty thousand odd would be the generals, admirals and all. But this situation docs not obtain here.

We have our own theory about him. These figures are put forward at a disarmament conference. Canada is only following the Geneva technique if she employs a bargaining figure. The one doubtless represents the hypothetical man whom we will proceed hypothetically to disarm. Canada, in fact, may yet break up the conference in disorder by making one of the first unconditional offers to reduce forces. We may then claim a flat 20,800.

Stratford Ex-Service Men Return Their Medals

STRATFORD, Ontario, is a furniture center.

Most of the furniture factory employees are ex-service men, veterans of the World War. They went on strike for better wages, and straightway the government sent down a detachment of soldiers with machine guns and tanks to overawe them. As there had been no violence, nor threat of any, the workers refused to negotiate till the machine guns and tanks were withdrawn.

After their negotiations with their employers had been completed, the ex-service men felt that they still had a score to settle with the governments that have treated everybody so badly, and so twenty-one of them, members of the Canadian Legion, got together their medals and sent them to the finance ministers of Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Russia, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Austria, Bulgaria, United States of America, Japan, Portugal, Belgium, Greece, Serbia, and India. Along with the medals they sent the following message, in English, German and French:

“Fifteen years ago we laid down our arms, victorious over the forces of greed, nationalism, armament and war. Our victory was rewarded with these victory medals. Today nationalism flourishes, greed is rampant, armaments menace our homes; and war impends. The fruits of our victory have vanished. There remain to us who fought nothing but our memories, our medals and the war debts.

“The memories we shall ever cherish. The victory emblems, now empty emblems in defeat, we surrender, one to each combatant nation, to be melted down into metal and swallowed with all other rewards of armed conflict in payment of the war costs of the world.”

Seeking the Vindication of Jehovah’s Name

THE clergy of all denominations have been used by the Devil to dishonor the name of Jehovah God; Judge Rutherford’s life is devoted to the vindication of that name. It is of supreme importance to the people that they discern the issue involved and that they take their stand on one side or the other. If Jehovah be God, follow Him; if the Devil, the god of the Dark Ages, be God, follow him. The question is up for determination.

It was in his address “Jehovah’s witnesses: Why Persecuted?” broadcast over the United States on Sunday, May 1, 1932, and published in The Golden Age of May 25, 1932, page 520, that Judge Rutherford made his original challenge to the clergy of the Devil, in the following language:

“I therefore invite the organization known as the Federation of Churches of Christ in America, together with all Catholic and Protestant organizations, to confer together and to jointly agree upon and select one man to be their spokesman in a nation-wide debate by radio. Let them pay one half of the expense. Jehovah’s witnesses will supply the money for the other half. Jehovah’s witnesses will select a man to be their spokesman in this debate. Give the people a fair opportunity to hear and to determine for themselves what is the truth. I charge that the clergymen are hindering the people from learning the truth, and I therefore name the following issues for debate, to wit:

Resolved, (1) That the clergymen, both Catholic and Protestant, do not represent Jehovah God and Christ, but that they do represent and serve Satan the Devil;

(2) That the clergymen do not teach the people the truth as contained in the Bible concerning Jehovah God and His kingdom, and that therefore they and their church organizations are a detriment to the best interests of the people;

(3) That the Scriptures clearly teach that within the present generation Jehovah God will completely destroy Satan’s organization, including present governments on earth, and that only those people who seek meekness and righteousness by taking their stand on the side of God and His kingdom may hope to be saved in that trouble, and that those who do serve and obey the law of God’s kingdom will be granted everlasting life on earth in peace and prosperity.

(4) That those who are opposed to the message which Jehovah’s witnesses are now carrying to the people by radio and in printed form are fighting against God and will receive a just recompense at the hands of the Lord for so doing.”

The Pope Also Given a Chance

A year later, Judge Rutherford having in the meantime given his address “Effect of Holy Year on Peace and Prosperity”, and the Roman Catholic church having thereafter, and because of that address, made strenuous attempts to have him cut off the air, wherever that could be done, he extended a special invitation to the pope for a public discussion and consideration of the following proposition:

“Resolved, That the Holy Scriptures prove beyond doubt that the head of the papal church system and its many priests who act officially under its direction do not act by the authority of Jehovah God and Christ Jesus and do not represent God and Christ on earth, but said Catholic institution is a part of this world and operates under the supervision of the god of this world, that is to say, Satan, the Devil, and that thereby the people are deceived and kept in ignorance of the truth, which truth is now vital for them to know.”

This challenge, which is merely an application of the original challenge to one organization, appeared in The Golden Age of May 24, 1933, page 536. Judge Rutherford has no other challenges outstanding than these to the Federation of Churches and the pope.

Not Challenging Clergy in the Bread Lines

There are estimated to be about 200,000 clergymen in America, any one of whom, individually, would no doubt welcome the opportunity to get a free advertisement that he is to debate with Judge Rutherford over the radio. There are now thousands of these clergymen in the bread lines. They would be glad to do anything at all to get more comfortable quarters even for a night. No challenge was ever made to these men; it is presumptuous for any of them to suppose that they were ever addressed.

How could a debate between Judge Rutherford and any man who is either in the bread lines or near the bread lines be in any way an honor to the name of Jehovah God, and how could it in any way determine the great question raised?

At the moment, men who claim that they are entitled to debate with Judge Rutherford by reason of his challenge are blustering about and making many broad statements, and it is due the public and these upstarts that we set forth the facts. The challenge made by Judge Rutherford is his challenge to the combined clergy, and according to all rules of debate that challenge must be either accepted or rejected.

Terms of Challenge Perfectly Plain

The terms of Judge Rutherford’s challenge as set forth above are perfectly plain, and readily comprehended by anybody who understands English, yet the only ones who have made any pretense of giving consideration to this challenge are those of the “Church of Christ”, in which organization there are no clergymen whatsoever. These letters Judge Rutherford has ignored for the reason that not one of them complies with the terms of his challenge, for at least the following reasons:

(1) No one in that organization even claims to be a clergyman;

(2) Not one of these men has received the backing or endorsement of the Federation of Churches and the Roman Catholic organization;

(3) Not one of them has made any pretense of offering to pay half the radio expense, which would be at least $50,000.

It will be noted that the challenge is to the Federation of Churches of America, together with all the Catholic and Protestant organizations, and that the clergymen, both Catholic and Protestant, do not represent Jehovah God and Christ, but that they do represent the Devil.

This challenge does not include men outside the clergy, because it would be useless to have a debate with every one who wants to advertise himself. Judge Rutherford is not trying to advertise himself, nor will he lend himself to advertise some nondescript.

His position is that “organized Christianity”, so called, made up of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and the Protestant clergymen, are serving this world, the Devil’s organization, and are not serving Jehovah God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and whenever this combined element will select one man to represent them in debate and agree to comply with the terms of the challenge, it will be more than gladly accepted.

Parkersburg’s Pompous Precocity

Among other letters received (in an extremely round-about way) was one addressed to Mrs. Herzog by a person using the letterhead “The Church of Christ, Parkersburg, W. Va.” in which appears this statement: “Judge Rutherford does not seem to want to debate with anybody on a reasonable proposition or on fair terms. . . . We have set him down as a coward.” This from an unknown entity to a man whose addresses go forth from 350 radio stations every week, to a man whose books have a circulation of over 150,000,000, to a man who calmly faced sixty men, armed to kill him, and gave them his address “Religious Intolerance: Why”, published in full in our issue of August 16, 1933, one of the boldest, bravest and best addresses eve-given. Anyone who knows Judge Rutherford would not believe for a minute that he is a coward; but for a man who claims to be representing the Lord to resort to the language of the street to bolster up himself proves such a man hardly competent to discuss God’s Word with anybody.

The real purpose of the proposed debate by Judge Rutherford is to get before the people the fact that “organized Christianity” as a body, and which is represented by its clergymen, does not serve Jehovah God, and its clergymen are therefore not qualified teachers of the Bible. He has no personal desire to engage in a controversy with any individual. This is a matter in which the people of America are interested, and they are not interested in Elder Corbett or Deacon Davis or what they may have to say about the matter. It would not carry any weight after they would say it. If the “organized religionists” claim to be representing- God, then they ought to be able to select one man who would be outstanding and represent the whole crowd.

Jehovah’s witnesses, going from door to door with the message of God’s kingdom, should be very particular to refer all persons interested in these challenges to the challenges themselves. If they would do this they would save themselves and the would-be debaters and ourselves much trouble. Not one of the would-be debaters has yet met even one of the conditions laid down by Judge Rutherford; and unless all the conditions are met, then the debate will not be held. The challenge has been repeated in The Golden Age several times; no one has dared to accept it as laid down; and for anyone to try to stage a comeback by saying he has accepted the challenge, when he knows he has not done so, is to commit a peculiarly clergy-like act.

Los Angeles’ Efficient Utility System

THE total of all tax moneys ever invested in the Los Angeles power system was $5,784,482. All but $847,494 of that amount has been repaid. In the meantime a surplus of $40,304,000 has been accumulated, and rate reductions have saved the consumers more than $60,000,000.

“Back to the Church”—Under the Guidance of Columbia’s Palsied Hand

IT SHOULD not be thought that we are speaking of your Uncle Samuel. His hand is a good distance from being palsied. It shakes a little, to be sure, but that comes from drinking too much coffee. In six months he cut down the unemployed from 15,000,000 to 10,000,000, and that is not the job of a tottering paralytic. The one we are speaking about is the Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. Its chief counsel has the shivers.

He received the announcement set forth in Golden Age No. 371, issue of December 6, 1933, pages 144, 145, which please see. With the announcement, which, it will be remembered, puts on every radio station owner the responsibility of deciding whether free speech in America must be surrendered to the ‘pope’, there went Judge Rutherford’s lecture, “Religious Intolerance : Why,” which he gave in front of machine guns at Plainfield, N. J., July 30, 1933, and which appears in full in our issue of August 16. This lecture it was proposed should be rebroadcast by electrical transcription on December 31, 1933 (and it was so broadcast by more than 125 stations).

One of the leading radio station owners, when the question was put squarely before him, had the manhood to say: “We see nothing wrong with the copy of the speech sent, by Judge Rutherford, ‘Why Religious Intolerance Is Practiced Now in This Country.’ In fact, we are more than glad to have such speech to go forth from our station. We have had plenty of trouble with the Catholics in the past, trying to get this station off the air.”

But no such manliness was revealed by the chief counsel of the Columbia Broadcasting System. He was shocked that in his introduction A. K. Wagner referred to the Catholic clergy of Plainfield as “the servants of Satan”, that he mentioned that city as a place “where a farce trial was had by a highly prejudiced judge”, and that at that trial that unrighteous judge had “wrongfully compelled” innocent men and women to answer questions. He could not conceive that “without any lawful right or excuse” such persons were thrown into jail, nor dared he face the charge that for centuries “the Catholic hierarchy has operated the most cruel, wicked and defamatory organization that has ever been on earth”, and “when they want someone killed” make provision to absolve the killers of all blame. He was alarmed when Wagner mentioned that “the judge of the court who had conducted the farce trial” “and who had defamed the name of Jehovah by his public declarations” had been in Judge Rutherford’s audience when the judge had given this “Intolerance” lecture. All this over the introduction.

Next the chief counsel turned white around the gills because in his address proper Judge Rutherford calmly stated in the presence of sixty police officers of Plainfield that “even the chief of police of this city has asked the owner of this theater to cancel his contract” and mentioned this as a “sinister influence”. He turned white some more when the judge himself mentioned that more than fifty good citizens, known to be harmless, had been arrested “without warrant or cause” and then were brought before a “so-called court” and “summarily convicted in the absence of law or evidence” in a “farce trial”.

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