Awake!, February 22, 1949
Download: PDF — Awake!, February 22, 1949
Evolution*Weighed and Wanting
Theory’s "proof” backfires to brand it rank folly
Death Takes the Wheel
I he automobile a killer greater than ' Ik.l >cven major American wars
India’s Ladies Untroubled
by ’’New Looks”
I he graceful sari their fashion for 2,000 years
Managua, Nicaragua—a Heavenly Spot?
Do the facts fit the popular song’s lyrics ?
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
News sources that are* able to keep you awake to the vital Issues of our timea must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests, “Awake f* has no fetters. It recognises facts, faces 'facts, is free to publish facts. It Is not bound by political ambitions or obligations ; it is unhampered by advertisers whose toes must not be tread upon; it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.
"Awake I” uses the regular news channels, but Is not dependent on ’ them. Its own correspondents are on all continents, in scores of nations. From the four comers of the earth their uncen sored, oa~the~scenes reports come to you through these columns. This journal’s viewpoint is not narrow, but is international. It is read in many nations, in many languages, by persons of all ages. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural wonders—why, its coverage Is as broad as the earth and as high as the heavens.
"Awake 1” pledges itself to righteous principles, to exposing hidden foes and subtle dangers, to championing freedom for all, to comforting mourners and strengthening those disheartened by the failures of a delinquent world, reflecting sure hope for the establishment of a righteous New World.
Get acquainted with “Awake 1” Keep awake by reading “Awake 1”
Published Semi monthly By WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC.
117 AiiaroB Street Brooklyn 1, N. Y„ U, 3. A.
N. H. K-NOjtft, Prejtfifeftf Gej.vr Sujteb, tiee-relayy
Fiv« cant* a copy Ono dollar & year
RwlttancU Atiinld be sent to office In ftrar cutin-try In inmiblUute with re(ulBt.ltinB to yu a ran tee deliver? if tnnney, BgniktUncts are accepted at
Brooklyn from cautitrta wtiaro no office te located, by International money order only. ButHoiptlon rates in diff ere nt countries are heraxaULed In local currency-
Katie* of hp|ration (<lth nnawal blank! If sent at Ipml two Issues before outHtription eiplrvs-
Enmred at secjutf tUas matter at 0 rifelyc. Jf.
Change of addrnu when sent to our office may be eipecLed tiff act Iff within one month, fiend your old as well as oe« address,
(HflCd Yearly SuWriptlcm Rate
A Ulrica, U-B-i 117 Atjimi&t.. Brooklyn 1, N.Y, |I Aittrafia, 11 Beresford Rd., SlrattiMd, NO. 0s Canada, 40 Irwin Are., TorootD 6, Ontario |1 England, 34 Crafto Terrace, London, W. 2 Sodth Alrltft. 023 Bunton Hoose, Capo 'Town Bi
I., Art of Mutt 3. 1170, Printed tn 0. S, A,
CONTENTS
Evolution—Weighed and Wanting
Appearances Can Be Deceiving
Are You Man or Mouse 1
Millions of Years into a Few Months
The Vanishing Vestigial Organs
The Record of the Rocks
Questions That Demand Answers
Heavyweight Dwarfs
Mexico’s Public Enemy No, 1
Sinarquists Organized
Purpose of Sinarquiam
The Chinese Puzsile
Problems on Palomar
Drugs for Drunks
Death Takes the Wheel
Some Safety Suggestions
India’s Ladies Untroubled by “New Looks” 17 Rome Conquers E. Boyd Barrett
Managua, Nicaragua—a Heavenly Spot? 20 Rainmakers Give Up
“Thy Word Is Truth”
Human Genealogy of the King
Geneva, the Protestant Rome
Watching the World
/IMZAKE/
Now it is high time to awake*"—Romans 13:11 9j
Volume XXX
Brooklyn, N. Y., F®bru«ry 1949
■ Numb*r 4
EVOLUTION—WEIGHED AND WANTING
THa avoiutlon'theory la aaaumod to be a recent sprout In aclentlflo mintfi, Actually, Ito roata penetrate th* dim peat* The February 8 “Awake!" dug along the taproot to fineI It embedded In heathen religion and mythology, and In Greek philosophy of the fourth and fifth centuries before Christ. Side roo<* invaded the field of fairy teles. Evon modern clergymen were caught wresting Scripture to fit the theory, though In thereby peeking to appear progressive they only backslid farther Into the bog of -pagan antiquity. That article'* title summed up the Irresistible conclusion: "Evolutionists Are Old Fogies." flow this present■ the
"proofs" of evolution on the scales that balanced minds may see how little they weigh.
LIKE an onrushing tidal wave the pseudo-science of evolution fountains from the pens and lips of modem educators and floods from the high schools and colleges to overflow the entire globe. It threatens to drown weak Christian faith and wash it from the minds of many. But studious Christians whose faith is firmly anchored in the lasting wisdom of God’s Word will not be like the unstable waves of the sea that are driven and tossed and slapped about by windy blasts. Moreover, if the thinking Christian weighs the “scientific proofs” for the theory any waves of poubt to which it once gave rise will beat against his faith in vain. The considered verdict on evolution will echo the one pronounced to Babylon’s wicked king Belshazzar: “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” The evolution deluge is a flash flood that will pass with these “last days”. At a distance its tidal wave appears powerful, but when confronted head on it is found to be light foam and wind-blown spray, void of weighty waters of truth.
First, let it be stated that an attack on evolution is not an attack on mature science. Evolution is not scientifically supported by fact. It is an unproved theory based upon hypothesis, a speculative philosophy. Evolutionists like to assume it proved, that it is no longer open to debate, and that only those who cannot think will attack it. They meet opposers with a smearing campaign of name-calling. The fact is that many scientists do not believe it, and many more that do will admit it is far from proved. Rather than return smear for unfounded smear, let us honestly weigh the “proofs” the evolutionists offer. The heaviest they have are comparative anatomy, blood tests, embryology, vestigial organs, geology, supposed new species artificially induced, and anthropology.
Appearances Can Be Deceiving
By comparing the skeletons, muscles and nerves of different species of living creatures the evolutionist notes a similarity of structure. He finds a similarity of design .underlying vast numbers of diverse creatures, and from this circum-
stance argues that all evolved from a common ancestor millions of years ago. But by the time' he traces all life back to this common ancestor he has forgotten his comparative-anatomy argument, for he does not find the skeleton, muscle and nerve counterparts in this primitive, single-celled ancestor. Nevertheless, by, an arbitrary arrangement or classification of skeletal structures the evolutionist xseeks to show a long, gradual line of ascent terminating in man. The similarity of neighbors in the line-up is undeniable.
were similar-
for
All houses have
■ But the evolutionist is deceived by appearances, He misinterprets similarity to mean that each one evolved ffom the one below. He onltf speculates, ity proves nothing.
roof and foundation, floor and ceiling, doors and windows, walls and closets and rooms; but who would be so ridiculous as to argue that this similarity proved all houses 'evolved from one original structure? All houses are designed and built by man and for a similar purpose. Might not the similarity that exists in creatures spring from a single Creator, who designed them for life on the earth, with special adaptation to fit some for life in the air, or on the ground, or in water? Why would the Creator vary the make-up of bone and muscle and nerve in every living form, when these three substances perform similar purposes under similar conditions and are nourished by similar foods? Comparative anatomy can prove creation as easily as it could evolution.
Are You Man or Mouse?
Professor George Nuttall, of Cambridge University, developed a test for human blood that has proved valuable in criminal investigation. A liquid called an anti-human serum was made, and when mixed with human blood caused a heavy white precipitate. But this white precipitate was not formed when the liquid was mixed with the blood of chickens or rabbits, creatures low in the scale of evolution. When it was added to the blood of creatures close to man in the evolution scale, such as monkeys, gorillas and chimpanzees, a precipitate was formed. This meant similarity of blood, and to the evolutionist similarity means one evolved from the other. But here again mere similarity proves nothing. If the blood were identical even, it would hot prove man evolved from a primitive ape form; no more than the fact that both sewing needle and steam shovel are made of steel proves one evolved from the other.
. There are other tests to show blood similarity, and the results are often embarrassing to the evolutionists. Hence we hear little of these results. One shows that the-tiger and whale are close kin, and nearer to man than certain monkeys. Testing the blood for negativeness to disease germs shows apes never suffer fi;om many exclusively human diseases, though so far as is known Malta fever affects only man and goats and the plague hits only men and rats. The specific-gravity test shows that the horse and pig are near to man, the frog and snake are nearer to man than the monkey, and mouse blood is precisely the same. If anything is more embarrassing than this tie between man and mouse, it is the results of the Nuttall test that shows chimpanzee blood is more human than human blood. It is supposedly the amount of white precipitate that indicates humanness. The test on gorillas behaves nicely, gives less precipitate than
a wake f
in the case of huriians, but, alas, chimpanzee blood gives more white precipitate than human blood J Perhaps evolutionists should revise their theory and point to man as the missing link between gorillas and chimpanzees.
Millions of Years into a Few Months
The more rash evolutionists claim that the embryo of a man passes through all the evolutionary stages, from single cell to man. The few months from conception to birth crowd in millions of years of living, as each birth is claimed to be a recapitulation of the entire process of evolution. This wild contention means that the embryo of man begins as a single cell, grows into a fish, passes into a reptile, thence into a mammal, thence into a primitive^ ape form, and finally ends up as a man. It was first expounded by Ernest Haeckel, who said: “The history of the foetus is a recapitulation of the race/’ Today evolutionists do not dare champion such madness, but cling to it to lesser degrees. They drop many stages, taking short cuts, and otherwise juggle the recapitulation to suit their fancy.
Most evolutionists today claim only three evolutionary stages are revealed: the fish stage,‘the tail stage, and the hair stage. They say that embryos of man have gill-slits at an early stage of development, reflecting fish "ancestors. Actually, these so-called “gill-slits" are merely folds or arches. Even in fish embryos they are not gill-slits. They develop into gills, in fish. In the human embryo they become ear cavities, lower jaxw and neck parts. It would be as reasonable to look at a roll of paper for a printing press and say, “There is a book/' But the printer might produce from it newspapers, or magazines, or pamphlets, or handbills.
When a book on evolution is intended for the generat public and not informed scientists, it will sometimes venture to state that at one stage the human em-FEBRUARY 22. 7.949
bryo has a tail. Kellogg did this, in his book Evolution the Way of Man. He claimed that the tail was no longer than the leg, and gradually reduced till at birth it had disappeared. At this supposed “gilled" and “tailed" stage the embryo is the size,of a pea, when only the principal organs exist, and these only in faint beginnings. To say that the human spine is a tail extending beyond the legs is absurd, specially when it is known that the intestine ajso extends beyond the legs, along tins “tail", near the end of which “tail" is the anal opening! What monkey or other animal ever had its intestines in its tail and eliminated from the tip of its tail! The adult spine has thirty-three vertebrae; sO does the human embryo, never more, and none of them gradually disappear as though shedding a “tail".
In the fourth month of development extremely soft and fine hair begins to appear on the human embryo and soon covers the whole body. It is known as the lanugo or embryonal down, begins to be lost by the eighth month, is finally lost after birth, when coarser, permanent hair takes its place. But in some places, such as the face and ears, this fine hair persists throughout life. Is that fuzz comparable to the coarse matting of hair that covers apes and other animals? The evolutionists so imply. Yet when this hair covers the human embryo it is so fine that it cannot be seen with the naked eye, except on head and eyebrows.
Sir Arthur Keith, Hunterian professor of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and 'former president of the Royal Anthropological Institute, said regarding embryology and evolution: “It was expected that the embryo would recapitulate the features of its ancestors from the lowest to the highest forms in the animal kingdom. Now that the appearances of the embryo at all stages are known, the general feeling is one of disappointment; the human embryo at no stage is anthropoid in its appear
s
anee," Well-known evolutionist William Bateson said to an assembly of scientists in America regarding the argument for evolution from embryology: "Today we feel silence to be the safer course.5* Proverbs 17:28 states: “Even a fool is counted wise, if he keep silent—intelligent, if he close his lips, ■—An American Translation.
The Vanishing Vestigial Organs
Some structures in man and other higher forms of life are believed by evolutionists to be remains of structures once required by lower, ancestral forms, but which are no longer necessary to their present possessors, Such structures or organs are called vestigial organs. In man the evolutionists used to point to some 180 such left-overs or hang-overs from evolution, but now. as knowledge has increased these vestigial organs have diminished, till today there is only a handful. Those most frequently mentioned now are the appendix, tonsils, coccyx, and the thyroid, thymus, pineal and pituitary glands. But even informed evolutionists no longer call these organs vestigial. Each has its function, and reputable doctors testify they do not merit the name vestigial. The same holds true for other so-called vestigial organs, such as the small fleshy fold in the inner angle of the eye, the muscles of the outer ear, or the body hair.
Sir Arthur Keith stated that "as Paley declared a century ago, our list of ‘useless* structures decreases as our stock of knowledge increases”. The late Professor E. S. Goodrich, of Oxford University, said: “He would he a rash man indeed who would now assert that any part of the human body is useless." Because the evolutionist may not know the function of a structure, he in his conceit takes that as evidence that it has no function. Moreover, vestigial organs would not prove evolution. Evolutionists must prove the acquisition of new and useful organs, not the uselessness of
organs previously existing. Still they glibly babble about vestigial organs as “proof”.
For example, retreating from the field of human vestigial structures, they cite some in animals. Two outstanding ones are the relics of rear legs in pythons and whales. In the rear part of the big serpents there are two strong spurs projecting out two or three inches and which can be moved vigorously. These are not useless structures, but assist in propelling the serpent’s bulk along the ground and also can by used to inflict severe gashes in enemies.
In the rear part of the .whale, embedded in the flesh, are certain cartilaginous bones from six to ten inches in length. They ate not connected to the spine, nor come to the skin. They are interior organs to which muscles are attached and by which the genital and other parts are supported. They are of value to the whale, and are not the relics of hind legs. How unreasonable to believe as do evolutionists, that a fish left the water to become a land animal, worked for millions of years to get legs, then tired of them, returned to the water, changed its front legs into paddles, developed tail flukes as a propeller, let its rear legs dangle uselessly, till now they are only isolated bits of useless bone embedded in flesh. That is the fish story the evolutionists tell about the whale.
The Record of the Rocks
Many evolutionists claim geology or •paleontology gives strongest “proof” of their theory. In the older layers or strata of earth they find fossils of simple life forms. Down through the millions of years, they say, new layers were deposited and life was evolving, and more fossils were being formed. In the more recent strata they find the more complicated life forms. This, they argue, proves evolution. They ignore ,many facts that refute their argument.
In rock layers supposed to be many millions of years old there are fossils of starfish, fish, plants, etc., that are essentially the same as these forms of life today. They have not changed or evolved. The same is true of fossils of pigs, elephants, tigers, bears, apes and other more complicated forms that are supposed to be a mere ten million years old; in that long time their offspring have not changed, but are the same as those fossilized ancients.
Evolutionist Thomas Huxley admitted this, saying that change in form of animal and vegetable life since its beginning till now is “wonderfully small” Professor James Park’s Textbook of Geology said that the most obvious lesson from fossil study was that “life, even in the earliest times, differed in no way from the life of today”. Also, that “the lowly types of life that appear in the oldest rocks have persisted through all geological times up to the present day”. Professor D, F. Jones, of Yale University, said: “Certain fossil insects, well preserved in amber from geological periods which are reckoned by millions of years, differ in no perceptible way from individuals of the same species today.”
This substantiates the Bible record of creation, that marine or water life was first created, then birds, then land animals, and finally man, and that all of these should breed true, producing “after its kind”. Of course, within the bounds of the natural specifes there can be wide variation, as exists in the cat family, dog family, or even human family. Mendel's laws of heredity show a pattern of variation, but dogs are always dogs, cats cats, men men. One cannot get cats from dogs, or apes from men, or vice versa. And if any unnatural inter-breeding of different natural species is engineered by man, the resulting offspring, if any, is sterile. It cannot bring forth “after its kind”. The wall of partition between natural species is sterility, and this forbids passage beyond the bounds of the species, though permitting variation within those limits.
Questions That Demand Answers
Nevertheless, the evolutionists contend that species have been bridged, not just once, but unnumbered thousands of times. They must make this wild assertion to maintain their theory. But why are none of these bridges preserved in fossil in the rocks! If evolution built bridges to link species, and took millions of years in each case, why are not some of the intermediate forms seen in fossils! Then there must have been millions of them, living and dying for millions of years. Did evolution burn its bridges behind it! There is not even a trace of ashes. This line of reasoning gives a foregleam that geology not only fails to prove evolution, but perhaps boomerangs against the theory. This line of logic is worth pursuing further.
In our next succeeding issue we continue to weigh the evolution theory on the balances of reason. Is the evolutionist's “evidence” of changing species and how they evolve as wanting in weight as his “proof” from comparative anatomy and embryology! Is it.as purely speculative as his geological arguments! Is his claim that anthropologists have dug up the missing link to bind man to primitive ape as vulnerable as the embarrassing blood tests that put the chimpanzee above man in the evolution tree, that backfired to kick man down to the mouse level! Setting aside the evolutionists copious theorizings and speculations, his profuse assertions and assumptions, has he any proofs that light will not dispel, as increasing knowledge has made “vestigial organs” to vanish! The answers to these and other questions will force the evolution theory to declare bankruptcy. Read them iii the next issue, wherein will appear the concluding article of this series, entitled “Missing Links Still Missing”.
Heavyweight Dwarfs
Nearly everyone knows that hydrogen is the lightest substance, yet very few people know who is the grand champ of all heavyweights. Guessing, some might say lead; others uranium; or others might give the champ’s belt to un-tarnishing gold. Platinum and iridium, however, are both heavier than gold, and osmium tops them all as the heaviest known form of matter on earth. Osmium weighs 1,404.6 pounds per cubic foot, to compare with lead at 708 pounds, water at 62.4 pounds, and liquid hydrogen at 4,4 pounds.
*8? But when astronomers stumbled on white dwarf stars out there in the stellar vault of heaven they were utterly dismayed to find that their unit weight was many, many times that of osmium. The first of these peculiar stars, which Science News Letter says are "probably the strangest, and most interesting objects in the universe”, was discovered in 1862 near Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens. For a long time little was known about these dwarfs, and up until 19,45 only 70 had been found. During the next three years 30 more were discovered. % The strange thing about white dwarf stars is that they are no larger than the earth, seme are as SKyiU as our moon, yet in weight they are as heavy as our sun. Such great density means that more matter or material must be packed into a much smaller space. How much more is packed in will tax the wildest imagination beyond its limits. Take as an illustration a cubic inch of osmihm. It weighs less than a pound; 13 ounces, to be exact. Now', if it were possible to chisel a cubic inch out of a white dwarf star and place it alongside the osmium, how much do you think it would weigh? 10 pounds? 100 pounds? 1,000 pounds? Come, come, make the wildest guess you can image! 10,000 pounds? 100,000 pounds? 500,000 pounds? Maybe yes, for the lighter-weight dwarfs. But others weigh as much as 2,000,000 pounds per cubic inch! That is 1,000 tons, a weight that staggers and numbs one’s comprehension. Just think of it, & cubic inch of stuff weighing as much as 50 railroad cars of coal!
Impossible! you say? Well, that is what the astronomers first thought. Dr. Willem J. Luyten, the foremost authority on these stellar midgets, says their discovery "caused a minor revolution in astronomical and physical think-ing”, Explaining, Science News Letter says: "We are here dealing with matter-imthe-raw where, under the conditions of extremely high temperatures, perhaps billions of degrees, all the atoms arc ‘stripped’ of their protective covering of electrons. This makes the atom so much smaller that it becomes possible to “pack” them much closer, and from pure theory it was now possible to predict that there should exist stars in which one cubic inch might ‘weigh’ over IO,000 tons,”
V These are dwarf stars in every sense of the word. Only 1/35 the diameter of the sun, and with a volume or bulk about 1/40000 of that of the sun, one of these dwarfs has just as much matter and weight packed in it as contained in the sun. And because this tremendous amount of energy is concentrated in so small a space, these stars are very much hotter than the sun. In luminosity, however, they average only about 1/10000 of the brightness of the sun, because of the much smaller surface. One dwarf, weighing around 250 tons per cubic inch, is only 1/25000 as bright as necessary to be seen with the naked eye.
Any person who considers such wonders of creation as these, and fails to appreciate the infinite greatness of the almighty Jehovah God, must indeed have a midget mind with a skull as dense as a dwarf star.
MEXICO'S
public Enemy.
No.1
IS IT better for religion to govern a people jointly with a political state! Or is it better for religion to have her place outside of politics and let the government rule the people without any interference from a church? Ever since the founding of Mexico by Spain that has been an important issue in Mexico. For hundreds of years the church and state ruled hand in hand in Mexico, but finally through law the church was placed in a position very inferior to the state and prohibited from taking part in politics. Since the church of Rome cannot rule in conjunction with the present political power in this nation it has attempted to put into power different political parties that would co-operate with her. But so far she has not succeeded in her plan.
Among these parties there is one of special interest because it is attempting to establish a government according to its own ideas and is willing to use any means possible to accomplish that, ‘even if it means brother fighting against brother and the shedding of innocent blood/ According to this party the shedding of blood, innocent or not, is “merely a planting and not really a death’', because they consider those that die for the party as martyrs and use their histories as propaganda to get others to join their ranks. So far 114'have died tangling with the government forces. The party referred to is Sinarquism. It is as religious as it is political.
In order to give a brief description of this party, which operates principally in Mexico, reference will be made to the book Sinar qitismo, written by the Committee in Defense of the Revolution and
FEBRUARY 22, 1243
published in 1944. The Revolutionaries are the ones that separated the church from the state in Mexico, and they are the political party now governing Mexico. The prologue of the book states:
The “ Committee in Defense of the Revolution ... has considered since its foundation, that Sinarquism is the No. 1 danger in our country. . . . We consider it a patriotic act . . . to fight—without using violent means— this group of bad Mexicans who arc taking advantage of the ignorance of the humble people to drag them into an activity which is antigovernment.
During approximately the last 100 years there has been a continual fight to establish a constitution which would openly separate the church from the state. And that is what the Revolution has accomplished. A great number of Mexicans have died, a number of nations have attacked and invaded Mexico, there have been many changes of government, but finally the state was in a position superior to religion and this was far from pleasing to the religious clergy*
This separation was principally accomplished by Lazaro Cardenas, a humble and sincere person who became president in 1934. His regime merely applied to the Catholic Church a constitution which had long been in effect but had never been obeyed. Cardenas sincerely desired to help the humble class of Mexico* Shortly after coming into power he turned over to the • people, farmers, tracts of land long held by the Catholic clergy and the other wealthy people.
His plan would have worked wejl if it had not been for the opposing parties directed by the religious clergy, who at
all costs were attempting to disrupt the presidential arrangements because it affected their interests. A. tremendous fight took place, especially in the center of the -country, which gave birth to a number of political parties whose sole intention was to disrupt the presidents plan of helping the humble class. Naturally, all these parties were supported financially by the landholders, the wealthy, and in particular by the clergy. Every one of the parties failed after a number of/attempts to foil the presidential plan.
Sinarquists Organized
Then the religious clergy of the Roman Catholic Church thought it wise to form a* party which, instead of depending on the wealthy and the landowners, would seek its strength from the people, the humble and illiterate farmer who has always suffered so much just attempting to live. First they formed a party called the Anti-Communist Center. They were trying to make the people think that President Cardenas was a Communist; but they failed in this because the people liked and respected the government of General Cardenas. This party was under a German, Hellmuth Oskar Sehreiter.
The director of this party next thought of organizing a new party. He gathered information from people that had collaborated with Franco, from the Italian Fascist party, and with this he used his knowledge of the National Socialist party of Germany. The result was the idea of forming a militarized, hierarchical party of the great masses attracted by a program in which the people would have the first place yet always be subjected to the will of the fuehrer, of a duce, of a catidillo, of a chief. "The [Sinarquists] . . conceived a type of party composed of strange elements extracted from three foreign parties and was baptized with a word which, previously, very few had heard in Mexico: Sinarqui&m" (Sinarqnlsmo) It was on
May tMt tfie National Sinetr-
quist Union was definitely founded in the city of Leon, Guanajuato, a city 100-percent fanatical and Catholic.
Through a series of talks which were compelling the humble people to take action, the movement got started, even though the people were harming themselves. And what was even worse for the people, a new factor appeared: the priest, "el padrecito,” who/making use of his moral authority, was continually insisting to the people: "Join up with Sinarquism, join up with Sinarquism. Sinarquism is Mexico's only salvation/’
Then, what is. Sinarquism really trying to attain T If the plan of its directors is considered at first sight, then their intentions seem good. But really, "What is their program?”
It would be childish to consider that the real program of the NSU [National Sinarquist Union] is that which it presents in its declarations, in the famous T6 points of Sinarquism', which are deliberately ambiguous and dema-gogical, similar to the ‘official truth* of Sin-arquiam. The NSU has its ‘r^al truth' which it attempts to conceal, but, without suspecting it, perhaps uncovers itself absolutely in stating that its final purpose is the creating of a New Social Christian Ovder.^Sinurquismo,
The structure of the party is similar to all of those parties of Fascist type, the supreme head of the NSU is the National director, appointed by the previous director. Nevertheless, the one that appears as the National director is merely an instrument through which works-the hidden and real power, and it is this power that changes the director, appointing the new one, when the one that has the position is not of any more use, or when he is assigned to another job. All of the directors have been weak-willed youths who are easily influenced by the master directors. Having youths as directors makes the people think that the party is directed by young people.
The National director receives the help of five secretaries, also appointed by the secret power of the organization* All together they constitute a national committee which directs all of the movement by means of other committees. All members of the NSU ‘receive military training, especially in rural zones* The purpose of this military instruction is shown in the September 26, 1940, issue of their newspaper, El Sinarquista, which states that Sinarquism wants martyrs, because “God is asking for the blood of martyrs to save Mexico”. But the important thing about this is that the directors of the party are theologians, clergymen, Falangists and, in a number of cases, Jesuits.
Purpose of Sinarquism
. The real purpose of this organization is to co-operate with the Catholic Church to put Mexico once again in the Middle Ages through the establishment of its ‘‘New Christian Order”. The clergy’s part in this organization is clearly seen when the present government through its book Sinarquismo states:
What they have had to use is the screen of patriotism, nationalism, and the common good, because of the mental backwardness of the masses in the center of the country which constitute their greatest reserve; and then, to avoid complications With those that might become interested in what was at the bottom of the movement, they established strict rules of discipline, obedience to the director; they considered as dogma the postulate of the NSU and the word of the directors. Methods of the Catholic Church were adapted to a political party. ... The extraordinary strength which it acquired in such a short time in the center of the country is merely the result of the elergyJs participation in the organization through its priests that, from the pulpit and the confessional, would urge and use pressure on the laboring people and the Catholics to join the ranks of Sinarquism.
Thus continued the campaign of the party until it had nearly a million members, the great majority being women and men of the. laboring class. Their bloody fights and triumphs were bragged about in their newspaper, El Sinar-quista, of November 4, 1943, and they also stated more of their present plans':
We want them to amend article 130 of the Constitution [which prohibits the church from being united to the state]. We waut the Catholic Church to have not only a decent position in Mexico, like she has in any civilized country, but also a .privileged position^ which she should have by right because of being the builder of our nation. In Mexico, contrary to our previous actions as a nation, the Catholic Church has been persecuted and forced to abide within the limits of its temples.
Eleven years have passed since Sinarquism was founded in Mexico. It claims at present to have half a million men in its ranks. It has left a bloody and fanatical trail behind it. Its latest leaflet,distributed November, 1948,says: “The National Sinarquist Union has, as its final purpose, the establishing in Mexico a social order, according to our own peculiar characteristics, based on the social Christian doctrine.” Their call is no longer to the illiterate laboring class but to the educated professional class of people to "be the pillars of the new Mexico”. Continues their publication: "The National Sinarquist Union has entered into its second period, undoubtedly the most important one: that of carrying out its program. We are very close to victory. In a short time the people will have fulfilled their mission.” ••
. Truly the history of Sinarquism shows that it is the public $nemy Number 1 in Mexico and it is a sure thing that the Sinarquistie movement will not rest nor give up its fight to establish a Romanish church-state government But in order to see whether or not the Roman Catholic Church will regain the dictatorial position she has held in Mexico for 400 years, it will be necessary to keep an eye on her new Mexican “sword of the church”, Sinarquism.—Awake! correspondent in Mexico.
The Chinese Puzzle
Here are some odd facts about the Chinese situation. Contrary to what " you might gather from the newspapers, the Communists who are threatening China are not Russians, They are Chinese. While these Chinese get their ideas from Moscow, they get their support from the Chinese countryside. They have had very little from Russia. Russia was the first great power io help Chiang Kui-shek in his war with Japan. While we were sending the Japs scrap iron and oil, Russia was sending Chiang planes and guns. Between 1937 and 1939, Russia sent more than a quarter of a billion dollars in aid to Chiang—five times what we sent. But here is the strange part: During the entire course of the war, from 1937 to 1945, the Russians refused to send the Chinese Communist army as much as a plane, or a tank of gasoline. All of Russia’s help to China, as well as all of America’s help, was cleared through Chiang Kai-shek, the deadly enemy of the Communists. As late as 1946, when General Marshall returned from his mission to China, he said he.knew of no evidence whatsoever that the Chinese Communists were receiving supplies from Russia.
< In the greatest aerial troop movement in history, American planes moved 80,000 of Chiang’s best troops to cities the Communists were ready to take over. Our navy shipped additional armies from Canton to North China. American Marines moved to North China to guard the railroads from which. Chiang’s troops launched their successful drives into Communist-held territory. We supplied the troops, furnished the equipment and advised on over all strategy. But, alas, the Chinese Communists have recaptured much of the territory we gave to Chiang, and now threaten to sweep all China. Some of Chiang’s best Am eric an-trained troops have deserted and gone over to the Communists Great quantities of American supplies have fallen into their hands. What is wrong1? The United States is trying to stop a revolt that is Jong overdue. Atl the support that we give to CFiiung is helping the Communists because it is used to prop up a rotten feudal regime that the Chinese hate,—K. M, Landis II, Chicago Sun-, Times.
^Problems on Pa/omar
f The 2(J0-inch giant eye atop Mmini Palomar has thus far presented problems instead of valuable photographs. The most serious trouble is a bulge along the outer edge of the massive mirror. It is 20 million tbs of an inch too high, an error seemingly slight, hut until it is removed the distant nebulae will keep their privacy, Another ailment of the telescope is that the edges of the mirror respond to temperature changes more quickly than the center, and this uneven expansion with temperature change throws the delicately calculated curvature of the mirror awry. So the mirror will have to undergo some weight-reducing treatment to lose its bulge, and small fans and insulating aluminum foil around the edges will care for the temperature problem. The scientists hope that by fall at the latest the giant mirrof will be relaying to them some of heaven’s secrets.
Drugs for Drunks
One night before going to & dinner party Dr. Erik Jacobsen of Copenhagen downed a couple of pills of tetraethyl-thiuramdisulfide. They were supposed to be good fur worms, but they sound bad enough for anything. When the doctor arrived at the party and sipped a small glass of beer his face got red, his heart pounded, his breath choked.
Alcohol in any form revolted him. It looked like the pill for alcoholics. Other medicines for worms are sometimes fatally poisonous when mixed with alcohol. Hence, during the past two years 500 alcoholics have been treated with the drug. After only one dose of the drug 450 of them still have a loathing for alcohol. Worms and alcoholism may not be birds, but it seems both way be killed with one stone—tetraethyl-thiuram di sulfide?
IN THE fall of 1946 a pair of vultures circled over a spot of Southern California’s Mojave desert, and looked with interest at a scene on a black ribbon of highway below. It was different from this highway's usual attraction of dead mice, prairie dogs, or skunks. Two of the fast-moving craft that so often added flashes of color to the dark road and pale desert lay crumpled and still a few feet apart The buzzards’ interest, of course,'centered upon the inert bodies scattered on both sides of the road, disgorged by the colliding monsters upon the sparse wasteland.
On a cruel bed of cholla lay two women's bodies, dusty, unprotesting the sand and thorns. Thrust through one bloody stocking was a jagged protrusion of bone. On the other side of the highway a man, with his head in the dirt, appeared almost as if he had been arrested in the act of eating the dust on which he lay. Two children moaned on the uptilted seat of one of the wrecks. At the wheel of the other was a figure in a pose so grotesquely broken as to manifestly proclaim sudden death. Twisted metal, scattered glass, and the splotches of gore added the customary trimmings to another auto massacre scene.
How could this accident have happened on a highway without curve, without defect, without visual obstruction! Both cars were obviously recent models. The famous desert clarity added to the afternoon's ease of car operation. Nevertheless ( the characteristic debris and casualties of the head-on collision littered this blameless strip of pike. Cars are now collecting.
Let us leave the increasing knot of people, which, among its customarily large number of morbid gapers, fortunately included two humanitarians who rendered first aid and eventually procured an ambulance. Observers later stated that the buzzards, which had been joined by several companions, circled with evident anticipation until the last mangled body had been removed. Tn all, the doctor’s report of this real accident listed six casualties: one man dead, one man and twro women all suffering from multiple fractures and lacerations, one child with broken nose, one with fractured pelvis. Investigation of the cause now takes us back seventy miles west of the point of the crash.
The scene of inquiry is taken up here because it is the closest point to the accident that any of the victims of the eastbound car can remember. (The dead driver of the west-bound car cannot testify, and his companion, with whom he had worked, cannot remember anything on the day of the wreck at all.) Two sisters occupy the front seat of this car, now about one hour and a half from its unsus'peded doom. Both are competent drivers; one has asked the driver to let her relieve her if she gets tired. Their speed is about 55 m.p,h. Their children, a boy and a girl, chat gaily about the fish they each expect to catch in Wyoming, w*here they are going. Their next memory is of awaking in great pain among the sand dunes and cacti.
It is, of course, impossible to state exactly what happened. The front wheels were so badly demolished that any possible evidence of steering defect was obliterated* But most of the insurance examiners, as well as the sheriff’s office, doubted if there had been any such defect* After talking with the single man survivor, the experts pieced it together somewhat like this: The deceased driver had been traveling day and night from the vicinity of Chicago, eager and overanxious to meet his sweetheart in Los Angeles. Worn from travel, sleep dragging at his eyelids, the normal brain warnings of highway hazards became dulled, finally narcotized by fatigue* The fact that his head tended to droop, his hands on the wheel loosen, had worried him a little the day before as he nearly hit a blue Cadillac. Probably on this fatal day also his head had begun to wobble, his sagging body and loosened grip dragging the steering wheel erratically, causing a zigzag course on the highway-
Then a blurring shape was coming at him, fast* Trying to straighten his body with his left hand, his car was turned directly into the path of the approaching shape. His speed is unknown, but assuming that it was no greater than the 55 m.p.h. speed limit (although it probably exceeded that), the two vehicles were thrown together at the combined speed of 110 m.p.h. The distance between them was diminishing at the approximate rate of 160 feet per second* Unsuspicious of any such erratic move, the other driver, who had seen the car some distance ahead, may have turned her head for a fatal .second, enough for the three hundred feet separating them to shrink to about a hundred forty feet, leaving only a fraction of a second for a warning message to the brain, a decision on whether to brake or veer into the sand, to communicate this decision to hands and feet, to manipulate the necessary response from the car, to avert crash. Many before these have found that the powerful killer of modern times can outspeed brain, eyes and hands, to deliver lightning deathblows. Mind cannot always control the hundred-horse-
power juggernaut whose knobs, hahdles and chromium figurinbs may be beautiful, but in a crash are about as lethal as the spikes on a Roman war chariot! In this split second the desert became another altar for bloody auto sacrifice!
A Killer Greater than
the Seven Major American Wars
The above is not the only fatal type of auto accident, by any means. On the other hand, it is not as unusual as some may suppose. The deadly head-on collision accounts for about 25 percent of all “open country’ fatal accidents. {The Encyclopedia Americana, “Automobile Accidents”) This same authority adds that 85 percent of all casualty accidents happen on clear or cloudy days, leaving snow, fog, rain, mist, dust or smoke to account for only 15 percent; that “approximately 80 percent of aft injury accidents occur on straight, level, dry roads having either a concrete or asphalt surface, and that no road defects were reported in over 90 percent of the accidents” ; that new cars having no mechanical defects are the chief offenders.
Probably the most shocking is the charge of the New York Times editorial of February 11, 1947: “Our nation has engaged in seven major wars since 1776. They covered a period of eighteen years. Compare the death toll of those eighteen years of war with the toll in automobile accidents in the eighteen prewar years ending in 1941: Eighteen years of war —520,000 killed or died of wounds; eighteen years of peace—550,000 killed in auto accidents?' An article in the Saturday Evening Past lists 720,000 dead, and 25,000,000 injured, since 1923. During World War II alone, traffic accidents exceeded battle casualties three times. For 1948, approximately 32,000 deaths! Killed in 1947, 32,500. The unenviable distinction of being peak year goes to 194-1, with 39,969. On the average, every ten minutes 2 people are killed and 200 injured by this modern invention.
Two-fifths to one-half of all persons killed by motor vehicle accidents are pedestrians. One out of four of the twelve to fourteen thousand pedestrians killed had been drinking. A corollary to the axiom “If you drink, don't drive” might be “Nor walk on the roads or highways”, especially at night, as three out of four accidents from drinking happen after dark. Accidents (1946), including fires, catastrophes, public and private losses, cost the United States $6,400,000,000. Motor vehicle accidents accounted for more than a third of this, or $2,200,000,000.
Causes
Carelessness and drinking on the part of pedestrians, plus speeding bn the part of the vehicle drivers, are among the more important contributing factors. But no single speed limit can be defined as safe. Speeding, therefore, can be defined only as “driving too fast for the condition of the road and traffic” Since about 9 percent of all drivers in fatal accidents and 25 percent of all pedestrian fatalities had been drinking, the use of alcohol is a serious factor.
By far the largest number of authorities agree that poor or careless driving coupled with speeding presents the greatest hazard.
The other flailing charges may largely be divided into five classes: (1) criticism of the vehicle, its design, excessive power, age, and general repair; (2) criticism of the roads;, (3) criticism or blame of the weather; (4) criticism of enforcement methods, especially failure to maintain proper vehicle inspection, enactment of compulsory driver insurance (many states already have this) and insistence upon re-examination of licensed drivers in order to detect disabilities, and to sift out “constant violators” and “accident repeaters”; and (5) criticism of insufficient driving educational facilities, schools and elsewhere “even for those who walk”. Wild suggestions were made for “auto clinics’* for the "repeaters”. Charges also were made against “women drivers” but were not substantiated by the facts. “Public apathy” also was scored in the press.
One writer summed up these needs under the headings, enforcement, education, engineering, eligibility. If another opinion will not bore the reader, it is that often it is not the cars, the weather, the laws or lack of them, the education, nor even the material or construction of the roads that are chiefly at fault. It is the material under the driver's hat, the quality or tone of the gray matter in his skull. He may be possessor of the Nazi spirit of contempt for the lives and property of others. He may conceitedly assume that use of a car is his exclusive privilege; or else he is oblivious to the potential danger of this armored projectile. He is the man who shoots over his partner's head in the hunt, throws down his lighted cigarette or match in the dry forest, and plunges his way through crowded streets. He, not the automobile, is the killer. Strange that men of this age do not generally realise that courteous and careful maneuvering of their automobile is far more worthy and appreciated than tipping their hat on the street or giving another a seat.
Some Safety Suggestions
When you drive you should not rely in any way upon the ability or consideration of the other driver. He may be competent, safe and considerate, or he may be egotistical, life-imperiling and drunk. Remember that for absolutely safe driving you cannot work on any other hypothesis than that the other driver is a potential? menace. It is often possible, however, if you are following a car, which should never be closer than safe stopping distances, to learn something of the driver's characteristics. If he is erratic or weaving he may be drunk. If he wildly passes another car without proper clearance ahead before another car approaches, he may be considered either in a frantic hurry or possibly a selfish chance-taker. Steady, reserved driving is equally easy to observe. Bus operators are forbidden to converse with passengers; “pleasure car” drivers should avoid absorbing tete-a-tete.
Drive ’courteously, considering the rights and safety of others. Pedestrians generally have the right of way by law. Give them wide clearance in passing, avoiding “close shaves” accompanied by startling horn-blasting. As an emergency warning it should be used. It should also be blown at blind curves and corners, and coming up over hill crests on narrow roads. The horn should also be used to warn approaching cars when they encroach upon the left side of the highway. Too often driving becomes a subconscious, reflex action. If attention is diverted, the oncoming car packs nothing less than potential mayhem and death.
If you have approached a town at considerable speed, slow down immediately, more than necessary, even, to get the proper speed perspective. If you have been traveling 55 miles per hour or more, then thirty seems very slow; but it may be double the speed that is safe, in a town. Safe stopping distances naturally depend on speed, since, it has been observed, cars travel in feet per second approximately one and a half times their miles-per-hour speed. Accordingly the National Safety Council has established the'following table: 20 m.p.h., 30 feet; 40 m.p.h., SO to 100 feet; 60 m.p.h., 270 to 300. Remember that the striking power of the car is nine times as great at 60 m.p.h. as at 20. One writer remarks that striking another car or a solid surface at 60 is like going over Niagara Fails in a barrel full of spikes! It is like falling off a ten-story building.
Constantly maintain the widest and most expansive view of the road ahead through a clean windshield, the road behind through an accurately set rear-view mirror. Then be sure that you signal for all turns and stopping. It is more’important to avoid a wreck than to prove the other party’s fault for the accident.
The proper way to take a curve is first to slow down on approach, then as you have turned your wheels, power the car firmly. The mechanical construction of the differential causes the outside wheel to move faster than the inside, and thus the motor power, expressed in the wheels, facilitates the turn. Nover look at the headlights of an approaching car, but look to the side'of the road in order to avoid their blinding effect. A courteous and effective way to invite him to dim his lights is to dim yours as far ' ahead as possible? School yourself to drive close to the right side of the road, so that it becomes a fixed habit. When descending steep hills, shift to low gear.
There are two special hazards of winter that are worth mentioning: skidding hnd reduced visibility. The use of a defroster and antiskid chains is an absolute must on icy toads. Unless you have chains on the car it will take you three to eleven times as far to stop on snow or ice as on ordinary pavement.* When roads are slippery, allow three to six car lengths for every ten miles per hour you are traveling. On slippery pavements always apply your brakes lightly, with a pumping action. ’
This does not by any means relate all the driving problems, but it should bring lo mind that when we start a car forward we enter the danger zone. A Christian especially should allow as great a margin of safety both for himself and for others as reasonable progress to his destination will pennit. In this fearful ^nd frantic world it often requires much restraint to maintain moderate speed and cautious conduct. But it is necessary, for Jehovah does not protect His people from all the consequences of carelessness, but warns them to be alert, circumspect.
’ If they fail, Death may grab the wheel. And he needs it only for a split second.
^nSiasJ&cties^f pp
UNTROU^^nt ui Locks4
WHILE the woman of the Western world is grudgingly giving in to the fashion of long skirts and worrying whaft avill happen to those short skirts hanging in the closet, and while the fashion experts are once again saying we have done it again, the ladies of far-away India are smiling as they wrap around them the ever-graceful sari. The sari has been the joy of the women of India for 2,000 years.
Who would not joy in a, dress that needs no cutting, sewing or shaping; no tucks, darts or padding; no pins, hooks or zippers. All you need is five to eight yards of cloth. But first you put on your choli; that is the close-fitting blouse or bodice which leaves your midriff bare. You step into your chappies; these are sandals; they may be of various styles, but usually with a strap between your large toe and the next.
Then over a long underskirt that fits very snugly around the waist you wear your sari. Hold the end of your sari in front of you, then tuck into the waist of your underskirt, turn around, pulling your sari snugly around you bringing it to the front again, and tuck in. Now you make six or eight folds to form pleats: These you also tuck in at front, leaving approximately two yards. Take the balance of material in left hand and pass it around again bringing it to the front. Draw this up across
the front of the body and then throw it over your left shoulder. This leaves nearly a yard hanging down the back, which is used frequently to cover the head.
So there you are fit for any part of the day's activity. The sari is worn by women of every social class in India, though there are variations in the final touches of how it is worn. Some wear it thrown over the left shoulder, and in some districts it is worn over the right shoulder. If you were a Parsi lady, after pleating you would take it under your left arm, over your right shoulder, tucking one corner into the waist, the remainder falling in graceful folds in front.
The dress of the middle-class lady of the Maratha countries U done a little differently. Here the orthodox method is to pass it round the waist so as to divide it into two unequal parts. The longer part falls as a skirt and the end is drawn between the legs and tucked behind the waist; the shorter part is passed across the upper part of the body and thrown over the shoulders. When worn nicely, the lower portion has the appearance of breeches falling in graceful folds. The sari worn this way can be very attractive if one can afford to buy an extra-long length of cloth.
But this is the style worn by the lower class who cannot afford much, and hence much of their body is exposed and so far from being edtrastivt it hardly more than covers where it touches* Among the poorer classes, particularly the beggars, they do not wear a choli but use the top part of the sari to cover them in front.
The sari is loved by the women of India for many reasons, and perhaps that is why it has remained the style for so long. The piece of sari worn across the front and up over the shoulder makes a convenient covering for the Indian mother to feed her baby. It is very common to see among the poorer classes mamma sitting on the sidewalk with her legs crossed providing a cradle and the weetike underneath his mammal sari having lunch.
And want to know a secret! The girls like the sari because it is not too revealing and does not give away their secrets and so without girdles and padding or the leg-adorning sheer stockings one and all look graceful in a sari. So whether you are the tall, slim girl who gives it a stately appearance or the short plump girl you too will look sweet in a sari.
Many Hindu ladies on principle wear cotton, often white; it is usually a fine voile, and this gives an air of cleanness and freshness. The Parsi ladies always wear silk saris with a border. Though all saris have some form of border, the Parsi ladies are famous for their outstandingly lovely borders. They are often finely embroidered with flowers, but another border that is popular is made up of little individual felt flowers each individually tacked on.
The modern Hindu lady and also the Indian Christians usually wear a silk sari. Many delightful combinations of choli and sari are found, lace and georgette, velvet and taffeta or embroidered organdy with plain organdy. But perhaps the most delicate is the san of georgette usually in a plain color, also very attractive in shaded colors.
But whether of the Occident or of the Orient, let Us not concern ourselves too deeply with this adorning, but follow the advice of the Bible. “Yours ought not to be the outward adornment of plaiting of hair, putting on jewels of gold, or wearing various dresses, but an inward beauty of nature, the imperishable ornament of a gentle and peaceful spirit, which is indeed precious in the sight of God? (1 Peter 3:3,4, Weymouth) —Awake! correspondent in India.
Rome Conquers E* Boyd Barrett
YES, E. Boyd Barrett, author of Rome
Stoops to Conquer, and several other striking books, has returned to the Roman Catholic Church. That means the repudiation by him of the words and work of a good twenty years, years during which he produced some quite candid and informative books. In these books Barrett revealed some of the inner workings of the great earthly organization that claims to dominate earth, heaven and hell. Barrett told the truth as he saw it, and wrote with considerable force and freedom.
Barrett's retraction, or the public statement of it, appeared in the Jesuit
magazine America. He says it was his own brother’s prayers that brought about the reconciliation, a simple brother who prayed, or said prayers, for twenty years at Dublin, until the day of his death. Anticipating his canonization, Barrett says that after death his brother “face to face with God” won the battle of prayer. The ex-priest was reconciled to Rome. .
The article in Jmencuis called “touching”. in a brief introduction. It is pathetic. Barrett pleads for sympathy for “stray priests”, whom he classes with himself, though their motives for quitting the Roman Catholic church are often quite different from Barrett’s own. But, quoting him, in regard to the leaving of one or another of such "stray priests”:
…