Consolation, December 5, 1945

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Contents

The Re-Education of Japan

Wh^.t to Do with the Mikado

Claims Direct Descent from the Devil

Christianity Makes Slow Progress

JJld Susanoo-no-inikoto on the Job

‘Vapah Will Never Forget”

“Gtj to the Ant, Thou Sluggard”

“Consider Her Ways”

The Ants’ Family Life

Exceptionally Clean and Polite

How to Get Rid of Anis

“As Bad as Rutherford” .

The Pandas in New York

Witnessing in Plymouth, England

“Thy Word Is Truth”

Why Were We Bom thus?

A Cigarette Talks

Some of the Best-loved Publishers

Working and Eating

The War a Great Eye-Opener

Ten Million More Workers

The Financial Viewpoint

"Full Employment or Else—”

Jehovah’s witnesses’ Mothers Retain Rights to Their Children

Theodore Beza and,His Codex

He Had Tact and Firmness

Was There Ever a Popess? ,

Published every other Wednesday by WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND tract SOCIETY, INC. 117 Adams St., Brooklyn 1, N. Y., U. S. A.

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. In Brief

Milking Uncle Sain’s Public Cow

♦ It is wonderful how enthusiastic the Roman Hierarchy is about lightening the load of Uncle Sam’s cow. A single dispatch from Washington told of the bishop of Chicago being made an assistant to the secretary of the treasury, and the superior of a monastery was appointed a squadron commander of the Civil Air Patrol of Olean and vicinity. Of course, no one else Mould do., and, of course, it must be widely advertised that these men do these things because they are Roman ^Catholics and not because they are Americans.

1 Another illustration of the same thing comes through the Roman Catholic Register-which explains that the “Reverend” Richard J. Roche, O.M.I., has been given a job as examiner in the President’s Fair Employment Practices committee at Washington, where he is a student at the Catholic University. The big idea is that he gets on the pay roll, because he is a Catholic and needs the money.

A still worse one is more than three-fourths of a page in the Houston Chronicle entitled “Flying Nun Gives Course in Aeronautics for Instructors”. You glance at it with suspicion because you notice that in the six big pictures on the page this flying lady is in all six; then you notice that in one of the pictures there are four other nuns, and in another one there are nine other nuns. You read the scant pointed matter and there you learn that this woman who knows so much about flying has never yet piloted an airplane one foot as a solo flyer.

You also learn that, during vacation, time, she left her job at a Catholic school in Ironwood, Mich., to come to the Catholic University at Washington to give the course, and unless you are a hopeless idiot you suspect in your heart that this was,all a frame-up to get a vacation at Uncle Sam’s expense, and to fill the milk pail besides.

CONSOLATION

“And in His name shall the nations hope,”—Matthew 12:21, A,S. V.

Volume XXVll Brooklyn, N, Wednesday, December 5, 1945 Number 584

The Re*Education of Japan

IN THE year 1935 this magazine had 31,000 subscribers in Japan, and the right education of the Japanese people was getting under way. This was very objectionable to “the god of this world”, the Devil; the magazine was suppressed; and the next year a half million Japanese people spent six hours worshiping a literal sword. Their so-called “sacred sword” -was, in 1936, transferred in the dark from an old temple to a new one. Screens were carried to conceal it from all eyes, and “in dead silence troops presented arms and the multitude bowed to the ground”. Familiarity with God’s Word would have enabled the Japanese people to see that King Hezekiah had the right slant on such matters when he called a certain metal object of idolatry “Nehushtan” (2 Kings 18:4), i.e., nothing but plain junk.

Those who can conveniently do so will find pleasure and profit in rereading the four articles on Japan Inspired, Deceived, Oppressed and Ruined by the Devil, which appeared in Nos. 585-588, beginning February 18, 1942. There the evidence was presented that millions of otherwise intelligent Japanese have been taught by the Devil, and really believe the nonsense, that they are literally descended from the gods, and that, in the person of the emperor, they have a veritable Son of Heaven in the flesh. The Japanese recognize 8,000,000 deities.

On July 25,1927, Baron Giichi Tanaka and General Hideki Tojo presented to the mikado a plan for conquering Manchuria, then China, then India, then all Asia, then war with the United States, then the conquest of the Pacific, and ultimately of the whole world. One of the public school readers of Japanese pupils contains the blunt statement:

By attacking or by punitive treatment, the powers of the world must be broken down in order to fulfill the divine mission of Japan.

Professor Tanaka, whose memorial to the mikado is above mentioned, in a lecture in Tokyo university, in April, 1931, after making the silly claim that “Japan is a country of gods, ruled by a divine emperor” went on to make himself ridiculous by the assertion that “Japan is allpowerful and one day will rule the world”.

Mikado and the Vatican

The mikado is not the only religionist that has had the idea that he is superhuman -and scheduled to rule the' entire world. Mohammed had that wild idea, and there is a gentleman in Italy, who wears a three-story crown, and will soberly tell yop, suppressing a snicker while he does it, that he is king of heaven, earth and hell.

There is a certain amount of what is sometimes called honor among thieves between these two sons of heaven. Years ago it was published that in his youth Hirohito, the present mikado, visited the Vatican and was there baptized as a Catholic. It doesn’t make the least bit of difference whether he had such a baptism or not, for no Vatican baptism would be recognized in any way by the great and true and almighty God who has formally announced that only His Son, Christ

Jesus, the Faithful and True Witness, is slated to be earth’s Ruler.

But in support of the published report that Emperor Hirohito was sprinkled at the Vatican, there is the known fact that when the ultra-Catholic King Leopold ’was christened, Emperor Hirohito went ftut of his way to send him his felicitations. The reporters on the job, who never, under any circumstances, suspect the Vatican of doing what it is always doing, conspiring against the liberties of the common people, could not figure that one out.

Gods that dress-in pants or skirts like to have men die for them. It makes them feel important. In April, 1944, the Tokyo radio was heard telling Japanese ' soldiers, “Let us all die side by side for our sovereign, without the slightest regret.” After getting that morning dispatch off his chest the mikado could then, as is his custom, sit down to his regular breakfast of fruit, oatmeal, ham and eggs, toast and coffee, and feel that his racket is in good shape.

What to Do with the Mikado

Many different ideas have been advanced as to what to do with the mikado. When t the American airmen began pounding Tokyo, in the fall of 1944, they . were admonished to avoid the imperial palace. The reason given at the time was that if the emperor should be killed by. a bomb it would unite Japan with a hatred otherwise unobtainable. Maybe yes, maybe no. . - • .

In Chungking, China, the view was held that all Japanese shrines should be destroyed. The way the Chungking reporter put it was: .

No matter how complete Japan’s defeat may be, as long as there is a mikado their god remains with them.-That means that they will still have the ambition and the intention to conquer the world sooner or later. ■

The New York Herald Tribune echoes the same view as that last Expressed and makes such a good job of it that it is worth reproducing:

Despite all the bombings of Tokyo, the palace of Emperor Hirohito still stands. This is a tribute to the accuracy of American bombardiers and to the excellence of their bomb sights. It is no tribute to American intelligence. What reason can there be for hesitating to wipe out the commander of the Japanese military forces and the veritable symbol of everything that is most evil in our enemies? Why not destroy this myopic little biped? Are we to forget that in his name millions-of men have been killed, innumerable honest and decent people have been tortured and half the world has been' thrown into the maw of war ? .

Who is Hirohito that he is sacrosanct? According to the Japanese themselves he is a descendant of the sun goddess, chief figure in a mythology which is obscene, is vicious, is without moral or ethical code and'is a justification for such treachery as the attack on Pearl Harbor. According to those who now v wish to save Hirohito’s skin this evil religion, curiously entwined with a despicable political system, might be useful to us, along with its high priest, the emperor, to control the Japanese 'after the war. But how could we put to good use anything so wicked and so depraved? How could we make any real gain out of a theocratic government which has been used for century after century by the overlords of Japan to keep in subjugation the peasants who make up the bulk of the Japanese population? ■

In modern times the militarists of Japan, as rapacious and pernicious a gang as ever lived, have contrived to use the emperor as their leading puppet in their scheme of world conquest. They have convinced the Japanese people that the emperor not only is divine but that he is destined- by heaven to rule over a world of inferior peoples which will be ebn-quered for him by the Japanese master race. They have sold the Japanese on the' notion that the present war is a holy war, and that it is worth any price which must be paid to give Hirohito, their god, sway over the entire earth. . '

If we continue to protect Hirohito, as our State Department seems intent upon doing, we will encourage all the evil forces in Japan which have used him, and will especially encourage all reactionaries. If we bomb to bits this preposterous divinity we strike a blow at the whole absurd Japanese mythology and medieval political and social system. This would encourage and give heart to any democratic and liberal elements which still exist on the Japanese islands. Why should our bombardiers be instructed to guard carefully the skin of Hirohito? It would seem far more sensible to offer promotion and a medal to the first American flyer who lays a stick of bombs squarely across the home of this false god in whose name so many horrors 'have been brought upon the world. ‘

•

Claims Direct Descent from the Devil

According to Japanese mythology, the first mikado, a gentleman by the name of Susanoo-no-mikoto, in due time actually became the Devil himself. The Devil married his own sister, a lady by the name of Amaterasu-O-Mikami, and the present mikado is one of their descendants ; so is every Japanese; so is the very soil of Japan. This is Shinto. In effect the Roman Catholic Hierarchy has stated that Shinto is all O.K., for political purposes. Japanese school children are expected and required to believe this rot, but there are some sensible people who think that until the emperor idea is cut out by the roots Japan cannot be trusted at all. Here is the way the New York Times puts it:

In point of fact the Japanese emperor is the keystone of the whole Japanese religious, social, political and economic structure, the godhead of the nation, the absolute ruler of the empire, the titular owner of the whole country, and the symbol of Japanese expansion which precipitated this war. By word and deed and every act of his he has publicly supported the worst that Japan has done, and has cloaked its savagery with, religious sanctions. The Tokyo Radio itself proclaims hinr to be the “political and military commander in chief” of the nation.

Review some of the many opinions as to what is best to do with the mikado: General MacArthur says that making use of him has saved the lives of innumerable American boys; Harley F. McNair, professor of Far Eastern history and institutions at Chicago University, thinks that acceptance of the mikado amounts to a loss of the war; Leeds Gulick, professor of Japanese at the same institution, who spent 26 years in Japan as an educator and social worker, thinks that the emperor and every one related to him by blood should be removed from the country and sequestered for ten to fifteen years so that the Japanese people may be re-educated; others think Hirohito should be tried as a war criminal, but his place filled by a regency.

The World’s Best Gardeners

The Japanese are admittedly the world’s best gardeners, because they are willing to get right down in the. earth and take care of the individual plants; but they are going to have a pretty hard time of it getting along on their four little islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. The total area of these four islands equals only that of Illinois, Iowa and Indiana, and instead of being rich farm lands, only oneseventh of the total, area of Japan is arable. Terrible conditions are ahead for the 70,000,000 Japanese that must now live somehow xm their home soil, all told no larger than California.

Early in July, 1945, before the atomic bombings, the Japanese government,can-celed property rights in devastated cities, so that food could be planted in the bombed-out areas. The gardens planted in the rubbled areas were expected to be principally sweet potatoes, which produce three crops yearly. The difficulty of living became greatly increased by the typhoon which immedi-

ately preceded the American occupation and which blew away many of the gardens last planted in the devastated districts. '

Poor as the majority of Japanese people already are, the 3,000,000 Eta, or ^despised ones”, are poorer still. These a^e peddlers, butchers, leather workers, menders of pots and pans, street sweepers, and cleaners of the privies which are still found in the heart of Tokyo itself. These are sharecropper tenants on the one- and two-acre farms; they live on the lowest subsistence levels, and are charged 36 percent interest on the loans advanced by the landowners. In the schools the poor Eta children must sit on benches by themselves; in class they must stand up while the others sit, and the books which they use are all marked “unclean”.

Ethnologists claim that Ainus, whites, ruled Japan two thousand years ago. Some of their descendants still live on Hokkaido, whither they fled when the Japanese came in from Korea. An odd fact is that the Japanese call the white Ainus “monkey men”, and many whites who should know better, and should do better, call the Japanese by the same unfair title. Says Albert H. Jenkins, in Labor;

Maybe everybody ought to stop this monkey business and recognize all men as humans, regardless of the color of their skins or the amount of hair on their chests.

Christianity Makes Slow Progress

Not knowing their Bibles, the first missionaries into Japan tried to tell those who would listen to them that their ancestors were all in a burning, fiery hell, for all eternity, on account of something that somebody else did 6,000 years ago. The poor creatures that listened wanted to know if there was not some way in which they could be sent there instead, so that their ancestors could have it more comfortable. Thp Devil has taught them that a iamb is “a dirty, stupid and cringing animal”. Those who would know say that in Japanese the word “lamb” is “an epithet of contempt and derision, perhaps the vilest wmrd in the language”. Those familiar with the Bible will see at,once the difficulties in the way of explaining the Scriptures which speak of the Lamb of G-od; and there are many such.

Satan’s lie that “ye shall not surely die” but that death is merely the doorway into a larger life is so thoroughly < impregnated into the minds of the J apanese people that they think nothing of suicide. As American troops came into Saipan hundreds of Japanese men, women and children jumped off cliffs into the sea or leisurely waded out into the ocean to drown. Fathers th?ew in their children and then jumped .in after them. Says the newspaperman Robert Sherrod:

In one instance marines watched in astonishment as three women sat on the rocks leisurely, deliberately combing their long, black hair. Finally they joined hands and walked slowly out to sea.

In September, 1944, the Japanese government dissolved all then existing federated church organizations and created a government-controlled, government-financed religious society representing thirteen Shinto, twenty-eight Buddhist and two so-called “Christian” sects, one of which was, of course, the Roman Catholic Church.

One reason ■why Japanese shrines were avoided by bombers was because of the quite open threats of vicious retaliations upon prisoners. War is the Devil’s own business and the Japanese conducted it in his way. Hospital ships carried machine guns and ammunition; lepers and insane patients were released in Okinawa, to'impede American troops.

One of the sensible things the Japanese military officials did was to fence off the headhunters of Formosa by a continuously policed 360-mile fence. After the atomic bombs were exploded the Nippon Times said (and there was a lot more common sense in their statement than they realized)':

For Japan’s own good, there must be speedy realization that the old order is finished and that the work of building a new world must be started immediately.

It is thet Lord Jesus Christ, and not the politicians and militarists, that is going to create the New World; and His plans will succeed.

Old Susanoo-no-mikoto on the Job

That seems a clumsy name to call the Devil, but since Hirohito and others like to call their ancestor by that name, so be it, and he seems to be doing his best to live up to his name. It isn’t pleasant to read of a Japanese commander forcing his men to make a march of 56 miles, and then, at the end of the march, to make them run around their barracks twice. But the Devil has just that kind of disposition.

It isn’t pleasant to read that for seven days after the fall of Bafaan prisoners were marched without food or water, and that on the march a Japanese tank deliberately swerved off the road so as to run over an American officer; or that physicians and patients were bayoneted at the hospital m Hong Kong; or that the natives of Guam had to bow to every Japanese soldier they passed or else be struck five or six times in the face.

No American likes to read how on July 2, 1944, a Japanese submarine submerged with 100 men on the deck outside (they bound the hands of 77 who showed signs of life, and left unbound only those whom they had beaten so severely that they thought, mistakenly, that they were dead); nor does one like to read of compelling unarmed men to run the gauntlet of Japanese (eight of them) armed with heavy steel stanchions, and to be hit so hard that the skulls of some of them were broken.

One doesn’t like to read of prisoners jammed together for five days and nights in metal cattle trucks, and so tightly that they could not lie down; or of men being made to work that were so sick that they had to be carried to their work on stretchers; or of their being compelled to work fourteen or fifteen hours a day at road-making, and in some instances without any clothing.

Even the miserable Franco did not like to hear of the 172 Spanish men, women and children that were bayoneted to death by Japanese troops while American divisions were seizing Manila. Nobody likes tio hear of the cannibalism that Japanese soldiers practiced in New Guinea, or of the sick slave laborers that were burned to death at Borneo, or of the horrible baseball-bat treatment given to Major Boyington at Una, Japan.

How could anybody place a burning ball of grass on a wound, and so cause terrible disfigurement? How could men bring themselves to gag their fellow men with metal bits, or women bring themselves to hit men in the groin? (The last-named crime is punishable, Scripturally so, by the woman’s having her hand cut off.—Deuteronomy 25:11,12) And what can be said in behalf- of men who tied the hands of other men behind them, used the victims for bayonet practice, and, while they were still alive, sliced off . human flesh for food? All these things were done by Japanese, and are well authenticated, and it is all to their lasting shame, for when they had their terrible earthquake in 1923 Uncle Sam was glad to come to, the help of the stricken Japanese people to the extent of ten million dollars.

“Japan Will Never Forget”

“Japan will never forget.” That was the message that came back from Japan, when the ships came from America, loaded to the water line with food, clothing, medical supplies and volunteer workers. Yet within less than nine years (early in 1932) it was three times proclaimed by-Eugene Chen, China’s foreign minister, that Japan was even then preparing systematically for war with the United States. The Tanaka Memorial, recommending to the emperor that Japan should at once start out to seize the whole world, was handed to that “Son of "Heaven"-July 25, 1927, only four years after the terrible earthquake and ’after Uncle Sam’s manifestation of real Antipathy and real help for the suffering Japanese people-

The Big Business crowd did all they could to help Japan get ready for the war they knew was in prospect. They supplied from the U.S.A. 92 percent of all the scrap iron and steel that was needed, and 92 percent of the copper; also they sent over 97 percent of the ferro alloys. Canada also helped. The fool militarists of Japan (the Big Business crowd) paid a terrible price, and made the Japanese, people pay it also.

The bombs destroyed 44 of Japan’s 206 cities and left 9,200,000 homeless. They actually killed some 260,000 people and terribly injured a half million more. The population of Tokyo was reduced from 7,500,000 to 2,500,000 and 80 percent of the city was destroyed. ‘

Don’t get the idea that the Japanese people are inferior to others. They are not. They7 have just been miseducated by the Devil. Others have been so miseducated, millions of them. For instance, President Roosevelt had to condemn the practice of making souvenirs out of Japanese corpses; and the State Department apologized for the sinking of the Awa Marti, the hospital ship which, returning from a tour of the South Sea islands where she had distributed Red Cross supplies for American internees and prisoners, was sunk by an American submarine, with only one survivor.

The American Legion post at Hood River, Oregon, was terribly miseducated when it forced the removal from the county war memorial of the names of 16 Hood River Japanese-Americans then actually serving in the American army. Don’t Hood River Americans ever read the papers? If they do, they must have read about the way the Japanese-American troops in Italy7 distinguished themselves, and why7 they were given the place of highest honor in the victory parade at Leghorn following their heroic rescue of the lost battalion of Texans. Meyer Berger, in a wireless to the New York Times, tells about that: -

Quit Hospitals to Bight. American soldiers now in this district who fought beside the Japanese-American units from loiter Italy to the Alps are urging of their own volition that the Nisei troops he sent home on top priority because their readjustment problems will probably be the most difficult of any of the returning GI groups. The Japanese boys here now are merely guarding prisoners. It was learned today that before the Japanese surrendered in the Pacific 172 Japanese-American boys in the Nisei regiment had asked for combat duty against Japan. It also came out that their casualties totaled 9,230, or three tiroes their original battle strength, and that the only AWOL’s against their record were six. These six were men who escaped from hospitals without leave to return to combat.

Maybe the Hood River men that did the dirty7 work never heard about their more courageous companions above mentioned, or about that single Japanese Christian who kicked ajar the closed hatch cover beneath which American prisoners of war were jammed so tightly7 that they could not even lie down, nor how7, a little later, he died under bullets from his commanding officer because, as the hull of the transport was ripped, he released them so that they could have a chance to live.

All Japan needs is re-education, and Jehovah’s witnesses alone have the “bread of life’’ to feed to them. Steer these people away from demonism and all the “hell fire” and “purgatory” rackets and give them the truth, and all experi-ence.shows that they will make the finest type of A-l Christians. Feeding them lies and threats'will not get anybody anywhere in dealing with them, nor with anybody else.

‘‘Go to the Ant, Thou Sluggard” (Proverbs 6: 6)

IF YOU were ever stung by a bee, a wasp, or a hornet, or were bitten by an ant, you know something about the hymenoptera, of which about 60,000 species are already known, with many thousands yet waiting to be discovered. These all have acute vision. In the higher type of bees the organ used for lapping or sucking nectar is a tongue which exceeds in length that of the entire insect. The ovipositor is used in sawflies for sawing niches in plants into which the eggs are lodged: in ichneumon flies it is employed in stabbing insect hosts, preparatory to laying eggs within the bodies of the latter: in bees, wasps and some ants it is used in stinging. This is a habit found in no other insects. Fig insects are very numerous and certain of these had to be introduced in California before figs could be raised in a climate which later experience has shown is perfectly adapted to fig culture. .

Little by little humanity is learning something of the Creator’s purposes in the design of the upward of 10,000,000. species of insects that enjoy life at His hands. It is an aid to grasping the subject when it is remembered that the principal orders are the coleoptera, made up of beetles and weevils; the lepidoptera, which are butterflies and moths; the diptera, which are the flies and mosquitoes ; the hemiptera, which include plant lice; the orthoptera, which are the cockroaches, grasshoppers, crickets and man-tids; the neuroptera, which are the net-veined insects; and the hymenoptera, which are the subject of this article, and more widely known as ants, bees and wasps. '

Many men and women are. making life' studies of various orders of insects, and with great benefit to their fellow men. One method of obtaining specimens of insects so small that they can hardly be seen by the unaided eye is to shoot them with bow and arrow. The feathers of an arrow are smeared with liquid glue. The arrow is then fired into a swarm of insects as the latter fly over treetops or other places difficult to reach. The insects are trapped on the glue and fall to the ground with the arrow. And then the magnifying glass gets in its work.

Red Clover Seed and Bumblebees

The sheep-growers of New Zealand imported red clover seed to improve their pastures. The red clover grew, but there was no seed for the next year’s, crop because New Zealand did not have the proper insects to pollinate red clover. Bumblebees were introduced from England. They did not need to take lectures on what to do. They did it. They flitted from one clover blossom to another, pollinating one plant after another; so now New Zealand has both clover seed and bumblebees; and it could not have one without the other. What is wrong about that? Nothing! Didn’t the Creator have a right to make red clover, and then make bumblebees that would get a lot of enjoyment out of sipping honey from its blossoms and dusting pollen over them? The same principle applies to fruit trees and berry bushes, which have blossoms that are attractive to hundreds of forms of insect life which fly directly from flower to flower and carry pollen on their bodies, just as the Creator purposed. So bumblebees in New Zealand mean more and better wool and more and better mutton, and other insects elsewhere mean more and better cattle, more and better milk, more and better butter, more and better cheese, and so on. Insects fly from cotton flower to cotton flower, or there would be no cotton; and from flax flower to flax flower, or there would be no linen. And so on to the end of the chapter.

A few more words about the bumblebees. There are 200 known kinds. They flap their wings 240 times a second.

That’s going some. Among the most select bumblebee circles the older daughters remain unmarried and devote their time to feeding their younger brothers and sisters, and probably get the usual thanks. ’Rah for the unselfish and hard-working elderly maiden ladies that dodge {fee nuptial noose J

4 Occasionally there is a bumblebee lady whose morals go haywire. She comes on a visit, stings her hostess to death, and then rules over the whole establishment. Shameless thing! But still such things have been done among humans.

Other Current Insect News

An insect small enough to crawl through the eye of a cambric needle has a heart, a stomach, and other necessary and useful parts. He has no lungs, but air gets to every part of his body through tubes and his blood never gets impure. He cannot smile, because his muscles are inside his skeleton. His favorite color is green, as is proved by the fact that more are caught when insect traps are painted that color than if painted any other. He cannot stand high radio frequency. When subjected to it, in the cleaning of grain, he dies; but the germ ofjhe grain itself is only benefited. Plant life jn the vicinity of radio transmitting stations is unusually robust.

Insects thrive on mild winters and dry springs, and that seems to go for the two-legged ‘'big bugs” as well as their six-legged little friends and tormentors. Man does not make much use of bugs, barring wood ants for making vinegar, and cochineal bugs for making coloring matter. He finds or identifies about 15,000 new kinds each year. Just recently he learned that one little fellow spends his entire life from birth to death in pepper. Before the war the Japanese had a market for silk made by silkworms, but that is mostly done for.

Insects can do some strange things. When a certain species of cricket is cut in two, the upper part of the body continues to live four days, and the lower part even longer; and when a wasp is deprived of his head, he tries to pick it up, as if to put it back in place.

There are plenty of insects. It has been calculated that if the total weight of the insects in Africa could be balanced against the total weight of the animals, the weight of the insects would be the greater.

Speed of movement differs greatly. Houseflies flap their wings 330 times a second; wasps, 110; dragonflies, 28; and butterflies, 9. The latter are adepts at using to their own advantage the slightest of air motions. They are, it might almost be said, gliders rather than fliers.

“Consider Her Ways"

The Creator himself admonishes man to consider the ways of the ant when He says, “Go to. the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise” (Proverbs 6:6); so there ought to be something learned from a study of these busy little things whose activities extend from the arctics to the tropics, from the timberlines on the mountains to the sand dunes on the seashore, and from the driest deserts to the dampest forests. There is ample variety. More than 2,000 species have been classified, 200 of which are found in the United States, with the red and black the most common. Anthills having 100,000 energetic occupants have been found even in England, and it is known that the hunting preserve of one red ant colony may cover seventeen acres.

The average age of the ant is ten years. Aren’t you surprised at that? Their homes in some places are portentous affairs. In certain places in .the .tropics they carry earth up the trunks of trees, particle by particle, and there build spherical masses of earth which not only form their own nests, but soil wherein grow various forms of vegetables upon which they feed. More about their food habits later.

Flying ants may make things interesting for other creatures. Even London has had plagues of these; in one instance in recent years the sky was darkened, a tennis tournament was held up and piles of the little unwanted aviators were brushed from the doorsteps.

Marriage means a lot to ants. Immediately after her nuptial flight, and just as soon as she strikes the ground, the queen ant tears off her wings or bridal costume and thereafter resigns herself to her one great aim in life, reproduction. And talk about cackling over additions to the family! an ant queen lays eggs at the rate of sixty per minute for days and weeks on end. You couldn’t get a hen to do that, no matter what kind of argument you put up.

The Ants’ Family Life

Men and women with microscopes have been snooping into the private lives of ants and have found the hours thus spent extremely interesting and instructive. Studying the ant herself they discovered that she has five noses, one for recognizing friends, one for recognizing enemies, one to know which way to travel, and two others for other and as yet unknown purposes. The males, the angelic creatures, are usually winged but they are shortlived. Living in'a home where there are sixty new children born every minute must get on their nerves. And then (it seems a shame to have to admit it) there are oversexed males that have no room for stomachs and have to be carried around by their mates, and are entirely dependent on them for sustenance Among certain kinds of ants the broth* ers marry their own sisters, and the newly-weds leave the parental nest, and, as is right and meet, find new nests at a distance from the maternal colony. There are other curious conditions, as creatures that are half queen and half male, or half male and half worker. The ladies do not always lead an unblemished life (it seems a shame to have to admit it); for it has been observed that a parasitic young queen may persuade the workers of her hostess to assassinate their own queen so that she, the newT lady with the latest in hair-do or what have you, may have her place in the castle. In Australia, in times of food shortage, a queen may eat a certain proportion of her own eggs, pupae and larvae; and who would have a better right?

It is the undeveloped females of the ant world that serve as the builders of the nest, soldiers to protect the home, household helpers and nurses that attend the queen and care for the eggs and young. And are they the busy creatures! When a nest is disturbed, these will be seen rushing to pick up certain small white objects, which are the legless grubs or larvae that in due time will be their young nieces or nephews, or brothers or sisters.

Exceptionally Clean and Polite

As* a rule, ants are exceptionally clean and polite. Each ant acts as lady’s maid for another, but not for herself. First she washes the face of her comrade and then her whole body. Meantime, the one who is being washed shows the utmost satisfaction, lying down with ail her limbs stretched loosely out, rolling over on her side and then on her back, a perfect picture of ease and contentment.

On awakening from sleep ants yawn and stretch their legs like humans. So it isn’t impolite to yawn. Or is it? In certain communities some have overfed and have lost their eyes and wings, but yet they are cared for. That seems about top-notch for animal politeness, doesn’t it? When two ants meet, they stop and talk things over. They cross antennae (humans sometimes call these horns or feelers) and stroke each other in a manner somewhat similar to man’s habit of shaking hands. In many instances the creature’s ears are on his antennae, in which cases the two creatures when they cross their antennae have their ears together instead of their hands. !

But now, don’t think that ants cannot be both polite and cruel. The so-called

driver ants do not have any nests of their own, but are predatory, like some birds and some humans, and wander from place to place; they are just tramps; that's what they are, polite tramps. And there are certain ants that j;aid‘ the nests of other varieties, and cUrry off to their own nests pupae from 5^hieh workers are subsequently developed and which become the slaves of their captors. Some of the greatest for* । tunes in New England had their foundation in the slave trade: so don’t insinuate that slavery and politeness are incompatible.

Certain ants are used by their comrades or captors for the storage of honey; their bodies become so tilled that they are unable to walk and hence they are really- animated casks or carboys. When the “friends” or relatives of these ants get hungry for honey, they stroke these repletes (as such six-legged walking honey-tanks are called) and receive from them the droplets of regurgitated honey which they need or desire. Haven’t you often noticed how fond city folks are of their country relatives when food is plentiful in the country? That’s the same idea, among humans. The fondness once saved ration points and still saves cookery. ,

But There Is a Limit

But there is a limit to what can be said about an ant’s politeness. Not only are there ants that use their unhatched young for glue to repair their damaged nests, but there .are red ants who raid the nests of black ants and carry them into slavery to perform all the work, and ■* there are lots of ants that keep aphids, i.e., plant lice, lead them out to pasture every day, and at the close of the day stroke their bodies to squeeze out drops of sweet liquid. Not only that, but when the fall of the year comes on, and the aphids would die from the cold, these ants take them away down in their nests underground for the winter, and bring them up in the spring when milking time comes around once more. Ants die if they have no queen; they see no object in existence if there is no excitement.

One of the unpleasant members- of the ant family is the famous “bull dog” ant of Australia. He is sometimes over an inch in length, singularly alert, wasplike, large-eyed, long-jawed and can sting like nobody’s business. At this point it seems desirable to introduce two anf stories from that excellent periodical Our Dumb Animals:

How Ants Cross a Stream. The inseet known as the driver ant is a most ferocious creature and perhaps more to be feared than even the wild animal^ and cannibals of Africa. They travel like soldiers, in columns, and the order of march is perfect. Their numbers are so large as to be considered only in astronomical figures/ .

Nothing is left i,n their path. Even if they encounter an elephant there will be nothing left of it after they pass except a mass of whitened bones. Natives, noting the approach of the driver ant army, leave their villages and flee in terror. When they return all livestock of every deseriptioiT has completely vanished.

When the marching column comes to a stream the ants unite and form themselves into balls, some as large as a hornets’ nest, and roll out upon the water. A given point, on the other shore is attained with uncanny accuracy, scouts having been first sent out to locate the best point of embarkation. Subsequent balls cross in like manner until the entire colony is on the opposite side.

The driver ant cannot stand direct sunlight; therefore it works at night. The soldiers of the colony, however, can stand more sunlight than the workers, so the former unite to form tubes about one inch in diameter, through which the workers pass without being subjected to the fearful rays of the African sun. This occurs in cases where they must make a daylight pilgrimage.—Marvin L. Whitaker.

Ants Are Intelligent. No wonder King Solomon wrote, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard,” for these busy little creatures show a remarkable intelligence. We humans have

learned many lessons from them, and, can still learn more.

Some kinds of ants are farmers. They plant fungus gardens and harvest the crop. Other ants are called Harvester ants, and they collect vast quantities of seeds and grain, which they store in underground granaries. They even spread the grain out to dry before storing it, so it will not become moldy.

Most remarkable of all, they show almost human sagacity by biting off one end of each seed, thus preventing it from sprouting underground.

Another species of harvester ant, a larger kind, are the grain crushers for the colony. These have large jaws, with which they crush the grain or seeds, so the smaller ants can get at the food inside. It is said that at least eighteen kinds of seeds have been found in these ant granaries.

Another species of ant, called leaf cutters, raise their own crop. The workers carry bits of vegetation into the nest and arrange it in a seedbed, and on this the queen plants a tiny speck of fungus. The workers then busily fertilize this “crop”, by spreading dung of certain caterpillars over the “bed”. Sometimes the queen breaks open her first eggs, to provide extra nourishment for the “garden”.

In some very mysterious way, the workers then “treat” the garden so tiny white swellings, like minute cabbage heads, grow on the fungus. These “cabbages” the ants eat for food. Scientists have grown exactly the same fungus in their laboratories but have never mastered the problem of producing the “cabbages”. This is still the secret of the intelligent ants.—Ila Marie Baird.

More About Ants

More facts about ants, collected from a great variety of sources, are that the transportation of the grain is by ant soldiers, who do the coarse chewing as they make deliveries. Then the other workers chew it very fine and make a paste of it. Blobs of the paste are then placed in the sun to dry into cakes and the cakes are stored in the nest for future use.

In ant nests there have been identified some 2,000 different species of mites,

DECEMBER B, 1945 spiders and other little creatures that devour the dead or diseased ants or prey upon the living in a great variety of ways, or, peradventure, live in peace with them, as. some men do with other men and as some women do with other women. In some ant communities there are funeral processions and the dead are buried in orderly fashion. Two ants car-, ry the body of the deceased to the burial ground, and all the mourners take a hand in digging the grave and covering the body.

Parasol ants» found in the island of Trinidad, carry small leaves and flowers in their jaws, umbrella-fashion. The curator of the Bronx zoo, in New York city, went all the way to Trinidad to get a colony of these ants for his zoological garden. In Texas are found ants that clear the ground around their hills of all plants except those that produce such seeds as they wish to eat.

Waste products are cleaned out of ant streets, and especially out of the nurseries, and are packed down in the dirt and covered with clean sand. Ants excavate streets and tunnels, storerooms, sanitary tanks, royal chambers for the queen, and' nurseries for the children. They enjoy eating dead beetles, earthworms, flies, scraps of meat, and cereals. They are mad for sweets, but too many sweets make them ill.

Watching an ant colony a close observer noticed one ant attacking h^s fellows and otherwise acting queerly: the observer killed it and sent it to a surgeon, who dissected it under a microscope and found that it had a tumor on the right side of its brain. Students of .ants agree that the worst enemies of ants are ants. There have been instances where ants have attacked humans that were invalids.

To see what would happen, a little girl in Yakima, Wash., put two ants into a jar wherein was confined one of the deadly black widow spiders. In a few minutes the ants had bitten the spider’s legs off and killed her.

How to Get Rid of Ants

Two suggestions are at hand as to how to destroy ants: (a) press a sharp stick into the nest to a depth of eight inches, and then pour directly into the hole, and from the can itself, about as ^many deadly calcium cyanide granules ^s ■would serve to cover a dime. The granules may be had at most garden supply houses. Coming in contact with the moist sub-surface soil, they release deadly fumes that destroy the whole colony, (b) The second recommendation is to dig a hole three or four inches from the entrance of the ant-bed; then place a coifimon drinking glass in the hole and fill around the glass with dirt, making the earth level with the top, and making sure that the inside of the glass is clean and dry. The information is that the ants will fall in and will not be able to get out. When the glass is half full of ants pour a few spoonfuls of coal oil in the glass and it kills them immediately; then they can be removed, the glass cleaned with a dry cloth, and the funeral arrangements for another lot of ants can be made.

Some interesting things about termites, bees and hornets and wasps, all of wliich are hymenoptera, will have to wait until another time.

“As Bad as

I HAD an interesting experience yesterday in the Kentucky mountains, not so far from Sand Cave. It was at the extreme upper end of a "holler” out of Hemphill mining camp, as far as the car could be coaxed to go. Indeed, the bridge I contemplated crossing, but didn’t quite dare, and turned around “at” was torn down during the day while I was up the creek farther. The bridge must have made good kindling wood.

It was “up in there” I met Adam and his wife. They let me in to warm (my first call at nine o’clock of a frosty morning). Several of the boys and girls were home, not sick enough to feel bad, but too sick to go to school. Mrs. Adam offered the remark that if it was Bible, they wouldn’t mind listening, but if it was man’s work, they had a Bible.

Adam himself said if it was Judge Rutherford’s stuff he didn’t want it. “I know he’s dead, but that man Jehovah they have put in his place down there I don’t like, and he’s as bad as Ruther-fbrd.” When he found out that Jehovah is the name of the Almighty God, and that His name appears more than 6,000 times in the Bible, he contributed $1.25 for the Bible library of four bound

Rutherford”

books, four question booklets, four booklets, the two last Kingdom News and Religion Reaps the Whirlwind.

A week or so ago it would not have been safe to go over parts of that camp a second time, as I was literally kicked off one porch, “ganged up on” by all pupils and two teachers, one of whom yelled to me in the presence of pupils that if I didn’t get off. a certain porch she would as soon kill me as to eat her next meal. Several good-wills took sides with me in the neighborhood talk which followed my first visit; so now, by God’s grace, I believe I will be able to visit all again without physical violence.—A pioneer in Kentucky.

The Pandas in New York

♦ New York boys and girls were delighted with those two interesting creatures, called pandas, sent to their zoo by Mme. Chiang Kai-shek. The boy panda was shipped at 101 pounds, and in his first year came to weigh 193, while the lady panda was shipped at 116 and in her first year came to weigh 203. But, sorry to say, the lady panda died in October, 1945, from an intestinal obstruction and peritonitis.

Witnessing in Plymouth, England

PLYMOUTH is a small city of about 225,000 population, a large proportion of whom are connected with the dockyard and thus, unlike the people of the rest of this peninsula forming the countries of Devonshire and Cornwall, their minds are less bound by the Methodist (Non-conformist) religion, owing to the influence of travel. By far the larger proportion of our time'as' pioneers is occupied in conducting studies in the homes of the people. At the moment I have about twenty studies scheduled for the week, with a peak of six in one day. The prospects are that this number will be reached each day; so the situation increasingly presses for the combination of such studies.

Religionists continue to fight a losing battle against the Kingdom proclamation. The following incident demonstrates this fact.

Scene. Working-class flats adjacent to the dockyard. Two publishers (pioneer witness taking newly interested lad) with phonograph are waiting at flat door for an answer. Parson (with handful of parish magazines) arrives at the same door.

Witness. We are calling upon the people in connection ■with a Christian work, helping them to understand the Bible.

Parson. Whom do you represent? (Smiles and beams)

Witness. We are Jehovah’s witnesses.

Parson. (Turning on his heels to 1 bound up the stairs to the next door) Oh, that crowd ? (Smiles vanish. Outlook stormy)

Witness. One .moment! Do you think we need correction?

Parson. (Now. six steps up, turning round agitatedly) Yes!

Witness. Well, why don’t you give it me then ?

Parson. Th-this is hardly the time and place. ' ■

Witness. Where did .Jesus preach?

Parson, (Pause) Everywhere.

Witness. Why then cannot you correct me here?

Parson. You wouldn’t stop.

Witness. You are running away.

Parson. Well, you people will not fight for your country.

Witness. Oh, you question my allegiance to Caesar ? That is what the Pharisees did to Christ 1900 years ago.

Parson. This is a war to put the world right.

Witness. This is the Devil’s world.

Parson. This is God’s world.

Witness. Peter describes a world that perished.

Parson. (Interrupting) Never mind what Peter said. I take what Christ says.

Witness. Are you- not a Church of England minister?

Parson. Yes.

Witness. Then your Thirty-nine Articles establish the inspiration of Peter’s epistle.

Parson. (Down for the count)

Witness. Now, have you a Bible?

Parson. Well, er-er I may have.

Witness. You cannot find anywhere in it a support for the central doctrine of your religion: the idea that man possesses an immortal soul.

t Parson. (Now trembling with agitation) Yes. (Quotes) ‘God breathed into jnan the breath of life, and man became a living soul.’

Witness. But that does not say that man was given an immortal soul.

Parson. Ah, you do not know your Greek; psuche is soul.

Witness. This was not originally written in Greek, but in Hebrew. Now I’ll tell you. where the idea came from in the first place. God said to man, Tn the day that you eat of the tree you shall die.’ The Devil said that you won’t; and he has used the clergy to repeat that lie ever since.

Parson. (Vanished)

ThyWord is Truth”

—John 17;17 s.

4 Why Were We Born Thus?

THOSE who gave birth to the human race were the original human pair. Men who feel the disadvantages of the birth in this and that condition often express the thought that Adam and Eve were comparatively innocent of any serious transgression due to their ignorance and lack of experience in Eden. Thus reasoning men have concluded that Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden and the sentence to death were harsh and severe. But facts do not warrant that conclusion. Let men bear in mind that the majesty of God’s law had been trampled upon, yes, by perfect creatures after having been fully advised of the consequences. God’s entire government was now involved, and for Him to treat lightly their deliberately wrongful act would be to deny the majesty of His announced rule of action. Lack of experience constituted no softening circumstances. Man was possessed of all. the faculties of a perfect creature; he had received the direct command from his Creator what he must and what he must not do. The punishment upon him must be in harmony with the law of God announced, and was neither harsh nor too severe.

Sentimentalists think that Adam and Eve had great love for each other and that their suffering outside of Eden was somewhat lightened by reason of mutual love for each other and that they mutually bore edch other’s burdens. But where is the Scriptural support for this idea? The woman could have had but little respect for her husband after he contemptuously referred to her as “the woman whom thou gavest me”. Placing 'the blame upon his wife for his own deliberate and wrongful act would not inspire her with much confidence and trust in him. Nor would the presumptuous act of Eve in deciding a vital pointy and acting thereupon without first consulting her husband, have caused him to have perfect respect for her or love. When they left Eden, they went forth with ill feeling in their hearts. Outside of Eden, and suffering the continued hardships, unknown before but which they were now compelled to endure, there must often have been strife of words between them, and mutual accusations exchanged, if they did not also come to exchanging blows. Few men and women have ever understood the proper relationship between husband and wife, and this is one of the chief reasons in this twentieth century for so much unhappiness in the marriage relationship in all nations.

Here is where we come in. It was under those adverse conditions that Adam and Eve begot and brought forth their children. The power and instinct to multiply was given to the perfect pair but' was not exercised until they became imperfect and were outside of Eden. The judgment entered against them had deprived them of the right to life. Consequently we their children would be born without the right to life. Add to this the prenatal influence of their sinfulness upon their offspring, which would be specially adverse shortly after leaving Eden. This may have had something to do with the wicked disposition manifested by Cain, their first son. ,It is , well known that the mental condition of the parent at the time of conception and during the period of gestation is reflect -' ed in the child. This being true, Cain was doubtless conceived and born while bitterness was in the hearts of his parents. Probably they, were more reconciled to their condition by the time Abel was born. It is reasonable that there would be intervals of time when they would be more kindly disposed to each other.

Necessarily, however, all the children of Adam and Eye would be born imper-feet because the imperfect parents could not bring perfect children into the world. No sane person will deny that we were all born thus. Being imperfect, we are naturally disapproved by the Lord. That which is unapproved stands condemned before Jehovah God the Creator. For this reason all the children of Adam and Eve were born under condemnation; hence we were all born sinners. Upon this point it is written by a man who longed for righteousness : “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that, all have sinned.” (Romans 5:12) Even a man of God writes: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”—-Psalm 51: 5.

Of course, as children of Adam and Eve, we were not on trial in Eden nor directly embraced in the judgment God entered against Adam and Eve, because we were not born at the time the judgment was entered. The judgment of God, however, took away from Adam the right to the dominion of the earth and the right to life. It was therefore impossible for him to transmit to his children the right to life or the right to earthly dominion. Hence condemnation resulted to us by reason of being born imperfect. The religious clergy have taught that Adam’s children were involved in his transgression, trial and condemnation, and that Adam’s sin was imputed to them and that therefore God condemned these children before their birth. That contention is not supported, however, by the inspired record at Romans 5:14: “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude [or likeness] of Adam’s transgression.” This definitely settles the matter that the children of Adam and Eve were not condemned in the judgment because of sin like unto Adam’s, but their condem

nation was the result of being born of ihiperfect parents who were then under the sentence of death and undergoing the sentence. We all are sinners by inheritance. •

_ Adam was created in God’s image and likeness and was created perfect. After his sin and exfmlsion from Eden he begot children. These were begotten in his likeness, imperfect. They were not begotten'in the likeness of God. The seed of evil was in them. That condition has existed at all times, including our day, and all children have been born evil. Aside from Jesus of Bethlehem, there Jias never been a child born that has been free from bodily weakness or the taint of evil.

Although there is nothing to indicate that Adam had a hope of being permitted to return to Eden, the Bible record indicates that he would have done so had he not been prevented. So God placed at the east of Eden, which was evidently the only entrance, some cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way to prevent Adam from returning and partaking of the tree of life. Among the reasons for which Adam could not legally go back to Eden were: (1) the divine judgment entered against him, which was final, and from which there was no appeal and which was enforced by his expulsion; (2) the ingratitude of his heart, and the lack of regret for his wrongful act; and (3) his desire for things sinful, in violation of God’s law, which was greater than his desire for things that were right. Hence the Scriptures show no opportunity for him and his mate to return to life-giving relationship with God by Christ Jesus. But because we have been born' as we were, God’s gracious provision for redemption and deliverance unto life eternal has been extended to us through His only begotten Son.

I will bless Jehovah at all times: his praise shall continually be in rny mouth. Jly soul shall make her boast in Jehovah: the meek shall hear thereof, and be glad. Oh magnify Jehovah with me, and let us exalt his name together. Oh taste and see that Jehovah is good: blessed is the man that taketh refuge ' .in him.—Psalm 34:1-3,8, Am. Stan. Ver.

DECEMBER S, 1945

A Cigarette Talks

I’m just a friendly cigarette;

Don’t be afraid of me 1

Why, all the advertisers say

I’m harmless as can be 1

They tell you that I’m your ‘Test friend”

(I like that cunning lie!)

And say you’ll walk a mile for me,

■ Because I “satisfy”.

So, come on, girlie, be a sport!

Why longer hesitate?

With me between your'pretty lips, You’ll be quite up to date!

You may not like me right at first,

But very soon, I’ll bet,

You’ll find you just can’t get along

Without your cigarette!

You’ve smoked one package, so I know I’ve nothing now to fear;

When once 1 get a grip on girls, They’re mine for life, my dear!

Your freedom you began to lose

The very day we met,

When I convinced you it was smart , To smoke a cigarette!

The color’s fading from your cheeks;

Your fingertips are stained;

And now you’d like to give me up, . But, sister, you are chained!

…