Awake!, August 8, 1949
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SCIENCE IN THE ROLE OF SAVIOR
Is it the way to one world or to no world?
Pine Tree Riches
How products of the pine figure in our daily life
The Hummingbird
A pugnacious featherweight jewel
Sinning Against One’s Own Body
THE MISSJON OF THIS JOURNAL
News sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital issues of our times mustba unfettered by censorship and selfish interests, “Awake!” has no fetters. It recognize* 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 tree 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 corners of the earth their uncensored, on-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 cover-age is as broad as the earth and as high as the heavens*
“Awake I” 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 “AwakeI” Keep awake by reading “Awake!”
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CONTENTS
Science in the Role of Savior
Religion a Guide for Scientific Learning? 4
When Science Becomes Folly
Science in the Role of Destroyer
The Savior of One World
For Feminine Fancy
Pine Tree Riches
Extracting the Riches of the Pines
Indian Dress in Guatemala
Everything in “Purse”
Free from Style Dictators
Inside Story About Aluminum
Compulsory Celibacy, Vice or Virtue?
Origin of Compulsory Celibacy
The Hummingbird—A Pugnacious
Featherweight Jewel
More than a “Sweet Tooth” to Satisfy 21
Home and the Home-Wrecker
Chinless? So What?
Religion’s Quest for Converts
“Thy Word Is Truth”
Sinning Against One’s Own Body
Catholicism Absorbs Heathen Goda
Watching the World
it is high time to awake.— Romans 13:11 Qj
Volume XXX Brooklyn, N. Y., Auguat 8, 1949 Number IS
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SCIENCE IN THE ROLE OF SAVIOR
ONE world or no world. Those are the stakes many put upon the present struggle for world unity. Scientific advances have shriveled the earth till nations on opposite sides of the globe are as next-door neighbors. But does this world neighborhood spawned by science draw close in a brotherly embrace of neighbor love? More often it is an embrace of death. Warring nations have been thrown into a clinch, into fighting at close quarters, into position for national fingers to clutch at neighbor throats. Into the hands of neighbor nations science has heaped fiendish means of annihilation. Have the advances of science only advanced mankind to its destruction? Some scientists recklessly suggest we may even be facing globicide.
Many persons cast science in the role of savior. Instead of viewing it as the way to “no world”, they see in it the way to gain “one world”. As hope in other saviors wanes the tendency is to grasp ever more frantically at the straws that remain. Science is one such straw that a drowning world now desperately grabs. It is often held out as a savior. This was done last September when the American Association for the Advancement of Science celebrated its hundredth anniversary. An association announcement said: “ 'One World of Science’ will be the keynote of the centenary, for science is the same the world over and it now appears that the best hope of mankind's becoming on^ world in purpose and objectives is through the unifying influence of science.” In a foreword for the program Dr. Edmund W, Sinnott, president of the association, declared:
Science is universal. It recognizes! no national boundaries, is limited by no racial prejudices, follows no dogma or party line. Whether a discovery in science is made by an Englishman, a Russian or a Japanese is not important. All that matters is the soundness of the work itself. When a scientific paper is published no one asks if it were written by a Negro, a Roman Catholic, a Jew or a SeventhDay Adventist, The paper is judged by what it is, not by who did the research which it reports. Good scientific work is being done by Republicans, Democrats and Communists* In a perilously divided world, this free spirit can be of greatest service „to mankind.
Science a Savior in Disguise?
And when the seeds of research are sown and their fruit harvested in the form of bombs, and when the evil fruitage is rained down upon innocent men and women and children, we can be assured that it makes no difference to them whether it was a Negro or white man, ay Cathplic or Protestant, a Democrat or Communist, that made the bomb that' blew them to bits. Those who worship at the shrine of science counter with an enumeration of the modern conveniences it ha$ provided, and boast of life-saving methods it has developed. But science's best is dedicated to killing; life-saving is secondary. It is a simple procedure. Science cures diseases, then makes germ bombs to spread them. Its surgery patches men up, then its bombs blow them apart. Scientists split the atom, next they split cities. Simple, indeed.
If science is a savior, it has disguised itself well. Dr. Urey, atomic scientist, said last year: “Atomic bombs have been developed to the point where we can't expect to use them in large-scale war and have the human race survive.” Henri Laugier, United Nations official, recently warned: “Destruction is here: within reach, is actual, aifci can be precipitated by a sudden act of individual or collective folly. On the other side lies the prospect* of building slowly and painfully, but assuredly, the golden age which will place the immense riches of science, both acquired and to come, at the service of man's well-being and happiness" Retired Rear Admiral Ellis Jit. Zacharias, U. S. navy7, asserted that aside from the atomic bomb science has developed weapons “that could wipe the last vestige of human, animal and vegetable life from the face of the earth”. At Fulton, Mo.} in March of 1946, Winston Churchill cautioned: “The Dark Ages may return, the Stone Age may return on the gleaming wings of science, and what might now shower immeasurable material blessings upon mankind niay even bring about its total destruction ”
Science has been defended as blameless on the grounds that it only accumulates knowledge; others are at fault for misusing that knowledge. In this vein was the comment of Dr. Jacques Mari-tain, of Princeton, made last April at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Mid-Century Convocation. He proclaimed: “The human person is threatened today with all-pervading slavery, not through the fault of science but through that of the enlarged power granted by science and technology to human foolishness/' Warring humans have repeatedly proved their foolishness. Why should science continue putting weapons in the hands of fools? If you put a loaded gun in the hand of a child, in an idiot's hand, in a maniac's hand, are you not responsible for any murders that follow? Science must bear responsibility when it puts fiendish weapons in the hands of giobicidai. maniacs.
Does this mean, then, that scientific research should be stopped? No; but that knowledge should not be misused. It means that scientists should not use their knowledge to build weapons of destruction, that as men grow in knowledge they should also grow in moral integrity to direct them in humanitarian uses of their discoveries. Man's strength on the materialistic front and his weakness in spiritual resources was stressed at the aforementioned Mid-Century Convocation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Doubt was expressed as to whether man was wise or rich enough spiritually to take proper advantage of the opportunities opened to him by scientific knowledge. Consensus was that “while man was winning the battle against nature he was in danger of losing the battle against himself and that this failure created a real threat that the very fruits of his victory against nature might lead to his extermination”.
Religion a Guide for Scientific Learning?
At this point someone will pipe up that more religion is needed to give the required moral tone and spiritual strength. Faithful adherence to Bible precepts would convert science from destructive to constructive pursuits; but which one of the popular religions of Christendom could supply that kind of integrity? The Church of England? Not so long ago it approved the use of atom bombs in warfare, and archbishop of York, CyriJ K Garbett, declared: “The Christian, despite all his hatred .of war and his passionate desire for peace, must recognize that war is not the worst of all evils.”
Then perhaps the Roman Catholic Church can break the war fever? “Father” Edmufid Walsh, vice-president of Georgetown University, said: “If they [Russia] get the atom bomb—and in quantities—God help us.” He then estimated that they would have the deadly secret in three -years, and the report stated his belief: “America's hope for salvation is to keep ahead in the development of the weapon and thus keep its present advantage.” Would a true Christian look to a bomb for salvation? Incidentally, Walsh was the one who gloated during 1940 that the Nazi war aims were the re-establishment of the Holy Roman Empire, which was a Germanic empire. Littl$ hope from the church that backed the Axis Powers, and is now the power that keeps Franco in the Spanish saddle.
Then what about Protestantism as a reservoir from which to draw spiritual guidance for humane use of scientific discoveries ? hOnly a few months ago the American Council of Christian Churches, representing fifteen Protestant denominations, called for “a complete and frank showdown” with Russia, asserted that “in the name of opposing appeasement the United States is actually participating in appeasement”; and in its resolution added:
Far us to have the atomic bomb and, in the name of a false morality born of a perverted sense of self-respect and pacifist propaganda, to await the hour when Russia has her bombs to precipitate an atomic war is^the height of insanity and will, when the fateful hour comes, be a just punishment upon us. It is a betrayal of Christian principles and common decency for us to sit up and permit such a revolutionary force to gain advantage for the enslavement of the world.
Organized religion is so anxious to use the atom bomb as its “church sword” against Russia and thereby make secure her precarious place in the world that she goads men to misuse science in bloody war. A glance at the history of wars AUGUST 8, 1949
fomented by religion should eliminate it as a possible check on misuse of scientific knowledge. Moreover, science and religion make rather strange bedfellows. Often the religions of Christendom have denounced Scientific findings; for example, at one time they condemned the telescope and microscope as instruments of unholy prying into God's secrets. They have been quick to quote Paul's admonition to avoid “profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called”. (1 Timothy 6:20) The word Paul used which is rendered science really means knowledge, and it is only the false and not the true that is to be rejected. But Christendom's religions swing like a pendulum from one extreme to the other, first rejecting all science then embracing it all.
When Science Becomes Folly
The Bible can supply the spiritual values that will enable men to use knowledge properly, and the Bible has nothing to fear from mature and proved science. Scientific investigation continually adds to the proof of the Bible's authenticity. It is only the unproved theory and wild speculation that clashes witji it, and it is the oppositions of such falsely called science that are to be avoided. It is not mature science when a scientific guesser chips off a piece of rdtek, gazes at it long and carefully, and then with an assumed air of great and infallible wisdom announces how many millions of years ago it was soft mud. He is merely parroting the prattle of his predecessors.
The same folly is found relative to the unproved theory of evolution. Note the following seriously advanced proposals of some scientists, as published in. the Los Angeles Times of March 20, 1949:
Scientists are beginning to think seriously of projects so colossal that the stupid laugh and the wise are frightened. A project which noted authorities consider is a distinct possibility for the future is the reconstruction of the universe! . . . The reconstruction of the universe has been suggested as the ultimate goal of physical science by noted men in this country and England. Perhaps the first to talk about it seriously is Dr. Fritz Zwicky, California Institute of Technology physicistastronomer who is engaged in research, objective of which is to shoot tiny man-made meteorites out of the earth's gravitational field. Some of these missiles, it is expected, never will return to earth, but circle the latter like miniature moons.
"Reconstruction of sections of the universe ” asserted Dr. Zwicky in a talk delivered ki England, "remains a distinct possibility for the future . . . and which we might just as well .visualize cold-bloodedly, since it appears inevitable, is the reconstruction of the universe. . . .
In the wake of the realization of large-scale nuclear fission there will, no doubt, follow plans for making the planetary bodies habitable by changing them intrinsically and by changing their positions relative to the sun. . . . ”
men have turned its blessings into curses.
excessive gravitation. ... It might be pos- Leaders of this world's politicians, com-
Stimulated by Dr, Zwicky^ thoughts, British scientists have projected their own thoughts so far that, by comparison, the Caltech authority appears a reactionary. In a two-hour address, delivered recently by Dr. Olaf Stapledon, of the Liverpool University faculty, the speaker suggested that, if moving pipets closer or farther from the sun proves difficult, it might be well to breed a race of more durable creatures. . . . An entirely different sort of creature might have to be bred to populate outer planets such as Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. "It would be necessary,” Dr. Stapledon explained, "to create a man of very small stature to cope with aible, however, to support the relatively heavy human brain in a small mammal by throwing man into the quadruped position. The four legs would have to be greatly strengthened and, at the same time, the head would have to be pushed far backwards so as to distribute its weight between fore and hind legs. Since the front legs would he occupied in bearing weight, what about hands) My only suggestion is that the nose might be greatly elongated into a trunk, equipped with delicate grasping instruments like fingers. It would be desirable to have two trunks, if not three. . . . The eyes would have to be projected well forward from the throra-baek brain pan. Otherwise, Homo Jovianns would be unable to see where he was stepping.” [Accompanying is an approximate duplication of an artist's conception of this evolved “man” that was published with the article.]
Such nonsensical gibberish spued out in the name of science does mature science as much harm as the hypocritical babblings of Christendom's clergy does to respect for the Bible. Only men blind in their own conceit and drunk on their own "wisdom" could vomit out such foolishness. And only moderns hypnotized by science could stomach it. What idle babble, when puny men speak of shuffling planets like a deck of cards, and evolving elaborate freaks when they cannot even bridge simple species! At the outset the article said the stupid would laugh and the wise would be frightened. But for the comfort of those who laugh at this “wisdom”, we quote 1 Corinthians 3:19: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."
Science in the Role of Destroyer
Science has yet to prove its power to save. Its potential to bless is great, hut mercialists, militarists and religionists fail to harness scientific knowledge for< good. Even the scientists cannot control the knowledge they discover. With increased knowledge comes increased power. Power for what? Power for bigger bombs? Power for deadlier gases! Power for murderous bacteria? radioactive clouds? Earth satellites from which to aim down guided missiles of death? Power to kill more and more innocent men, women and children? to conquer more nations and continents? to control the seas of water and air?
When you see science’s impressive parade of tanks and artillery, warships and submarines, bombers and fighters, do you also see the gutted cities, the maimed soldiers, the dying women, the dead children? As you swell with patriotic pride at the display of might do you see the endless rows of white crosses that sprout from the earth in the wake of the seeds of death the paraders will sow? Does the cannon’s boom echo back to your ears the casualty lists? As the jet planes streak across the sky with exhausts hissing like gigantic snakes, do you hear in their swishing roar the voice of prophecy foretelling ruined cities bleeding on the earth’s bosom? In the red rubble at the feet of scientific warfare do you read the record of science’s failure as a savior of mankind?
Or have you been blinded to these tragedies by the glittering, dazzling, idolized monument to modern science? Polished and beautiful - outwardly, but inwardly full of dead men’s bones. (Matthew 23:27) Bible principles are too Impractical for this hard-headed world of realists; so it turns its worship to materialism. The Nazis worshiped the god of science, and their god destroyed them. They took up the glittering sword of science, and they fell by it. Science turns on the civilization it was to serve. On its altar are offered nations, cities, mankind. With religion’s blessing and in the name of God and humanity, freedom and peace, the sacrifices to wargod Mars are made bloodier under the lash of scientific knowledge.
In times past men were destroyed by lack of knowledge. Now they are destroyed by their knowledge. Their knowledge puffs them up and hides from them the true knowledge of Jehovah God. When will they realize it? When will they awake? For the majority, when death, knocks, when they are about to be put to sleep forever. Momentary misgivings may assail them from time to time, but the living pace is too fast for them to slow up for a close look, and they are swept on in the torrent. Only when the onrush is slowed by the clawing hands of death will their glittering temple of science fall, its tinseled glory fade, its fascinating grip and hypnotizing spell be broken, its giant womb be seen as barren of the best fruits. Only as life irretrievably ebbs from a worn-out or broken body, as consciousness slips from a mind intoxicated by the heady, sparkling champagne of modern science, only then at that tardy time will true values be flashed clear on the dying brain. The sobering comes too late; the excessive imbiber of science-worship passes out for the last time, dead to the New World.
The Savior of Onto World
The New World? Yes, and it shall be One World. It is the promised world of “new heavens and a new earth” that God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son, that "whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1-5; John 3:16, 36) True .and mature science will have its place in that world, after it has been purged of its present speculative follies. But such scientific knowledge, even when exclusively used for blessing, will not be cast in the role of world savior. The one Savior of that united world of righteousness is identified in God’s Word: "I, even I, am Jehovah; and besides me there is no saviour.” —Isaiah 43:11, Am. Stan. Ver.
"Keep away from the worldly, empty phrases and contradictions of what they falsely call knowledge, through professing which some people have made a failure of the faith”
—1 Timothy 6:20 4m American Translation.
AUGUST 8, 1949 7
For Feminine Fancy
After years of urging parents to let the offspring have their way for fear that checking their cute rampages of savagery and destruction would only sow seeds of adult mental ills, the child psychologists are now doing an aboutface. Though the swing back to the spare-the-rod-and-spoil-the-ehild theory is in its infancy, many of the leaders in social science have been forced by the facts to admit that the lessons learned at Mothers knee do not make as lasting an impression as those learned while stretched across Daddy’s. The New York Sunday Mirror Magazine, May 1, reports that Dr. Mahler, of Columbia University, is the sparkplug of this counter-revolution. In most cases she advises disciplinary measures ranging from slight disapproval to restriction of freedom, but adds that if exceptional unruliness in the child is the rule, “obeying a normal reaction clears the air.” The back of a hairbrush speaks much louder than words.
Banana skins have been called nature’s germ-proof wrapper. Science now comes forward with the suggestion that their power to stop germ penetration may be due to an anti-germ chemical like penicillin and streptomycin, A banana antibiotic may prove tive against fungus infections as well as against germs of the ’bacteria class. United States Department of Agriculture researchers found that apparently bananas produced two antibiotics, one that fights fungi and is in both pulp and skin of green or ripe bananas, and th? other active against bacteria and found only in the skin of ripe bananas. Researchers also discovered two antibiotics produced in the sweet potato plant. One combats fungi, and the other not only stops the growth of certain germs but kills them. Work on both the banana and sweet potato anti-germ chemicals is very preliminary, and whether they will be useful in medicines depends od future tests.
Have you ever seen a nylon stocking run without a.feminine leg in it? Or a shoe with no foot in it wander around all day? Or shirts develop frayed collars aud cuffs without being worn! Well, according to a report in This Week magazine that and more happens in the privately owned laboratories of the United States Testing Company, Inc. The reason for all this is that manufacturers want to know how their products will stand the gaff —and UST supplies the Gaff, with a capital G. The testing laboratories look like a crazy house of Rube Goldberg inventions, what with scores of odd gadgets that flex the tops of hose rapidly and roughly, that methodically reduce a baby’s high chair to soggy ruin, that leep” new mattresses by rolling back and forth a few hundred thousand times till they wear out, that walk shoes on a flywheel, that dunk garments in human sweat, and that even wear girdles on metal hips that bend and twist.
The New York Times Magazine reports a social revolution taking place in the ranks of older women. For them a wageearner’s life begins after forty. Statistics prove it. Of the more than ,000,000 women in the United States forty-five, about one half are listed by the Department of Labor as “gainfully employed”. They find work in all hut nine of the 480 general occupational classifications, though most of them are employed in what is traditionally known as “women’s work”, such as house workers, seamstresses, beauticians and waitresses. After these services, women are most numerous in clerical work. It may surprise many to know that 100,000 women over forty-five are farm owners and managers. At the same time, the group in which is found the smallest number of older women is that of farm workers. Whether the trend in older women workers continues depends on economic conditions, say the experts.
PINE TREE RICHES
SMELLY pine tar, rosin and turpentine do not particularly interest the average person. However, if the importance of these materials, their everyday usefulness and their valuable service to mankind are pointed out, perhaps people will look down their noses at these extracts of the pine forest with just a little more respect. One cannot say he or she is not interested on the grounds of never having come in contact with these materials. Why, the very words you are now reading are glued fast to the paper by the aid of rosin -used in the printing ink for this magazine.
Women as a rule take no interest in the technicalities of chemistry, yet, because materials from the pine are found in so many products, they too enjoy the chemical riches of the pine forest. Take, for example, the oilcloth and linoleum in the kitchen that are waterproof, flexible, easy to keep clean, durable under wear and economical in price. Chemicals from the pines help to make them so. For the same reason good matches are made good, a thing much appreciated around the kitchen. When the leather belt on the old washing machine begins to slip, and the harassed housewife daubs on a little belt dressing, her praise is really sung for the sticky rosin in the dope.
All about the house, on the walls, the woodwork, the furniture—from baby’s crib to the broomhandle on the back porch—are paints, lacquers and varnishes all containing rosin, straight or in some modified form. More than 250,000 barrels of rosin a year are used directly in varnish kettles. You did not know this? Well, if it had been lelc out you would soon have protested, for the gloss would be missing and the protective films on the chairs would be so soft you would stick to them every time you sat down. Besides the rosin component, anti-skinning agents and other pine tree chemicals, including turpentine, are used in the manufacture of paints.
Besides paints, there is a host of other products that take advantage of the super solvents of the terpene series extracted from the pines. That “pretty-upper” item called shoe polish is one of the most common of these products. Others include furniture and auto polishes, wax emulsions and preparations containing natural oils, fats, organic compounds and synthetic resins. Some of the finest synthetic color pigments, known as resinated colors, are given a treatment of rosin acid to bring out their full beauty and luster.
Pine oil is a very important material, and it finds any number of places where it serves man’s needs better than other substances. In the textile industry it is used for degumming silks, as a spinning oil, and in the scouring, bleaching, dyeing and mercer izing processes. As a froth-ing agent in the flota- $
tion of ores, in the >
leather tanning indus- $
try, in the paper industry and in the manufacture of insecticides, pine oil finds a definite use. Pine oil inseeti-
cides fortified with DDT are effective against flies, mosquitoes, ants,moths and bedbugs. Pine oil sprays are also used around barns, in garbage pails and on city dumps, and an insecticide containing turpentine is used against cotton insects.
Ever So Many Other Uses
Into the huge soap kettles of the nation go many tons of rosin, which, when treated with caustic soda, comes out as laundry soap. Or first as an intermediate for the making of a certain perfume base, other pine tree chemicals finally wind up as pleasant scents in delicate soaps. Some 360,000 barrels of rosin are used for sizing certain surfaces of paper. In a process resembling soap-mak-mg, rosin finds use in special oils and greases. Cutting oils and metal cleaners used in machine shops, electrical insulating compounds, roofing compounds and sprays used on sand*molds for steel, iron and non-ferrous castings in the foundry contain materials from the pine’s reservoir of chemicals. More recently an industrial heavy alcohol made from rosin is being used in the manufacture of chlorinated rubber. During the war other piney materials went into synthetic rubber tires.
That wonderful invention called “fly paper’ must share its glory among the materials out of which it is made, including products of the pine. Rubber cements and other adhesives must do likewise. Into the manufacture of patent leather, and heel and toe boxes for shoes, go some of these materials. In the slaughterhouses of the country a mixture of rosin is used to take the hair off hogs. Pitch from the pine tree is used by breweries of the country, and other pine tree chemicals serve as “wetting agents” in inks, glues, starches and latex tnix-tures. Concrete is made more flexible and more durable against freezing and thawing, and more resistant to salt solutions, when certain resins originating in the pines are included in the mix. Or
when small amounts of the pine’s resins are mixed with ordinary soil, the soil is waterproofed and stabilized, and consequently this treatment is useful in roadbuilding and in the construction of airplane fields and auto parking lots.
In the back hills of Tennessee, turpentine is said to be effective as a cough medicine, possibly because the patient after a couple of doses decides it is better to stifle the cough in order to escape further tortures from the treatment Be that as it may, highly refined terpines, venice turpentine and pine oils and tars find their way to the shelves of all drug stores in many pharmaceutical preparations including liniments, ointments and salves. Pine-tar cough medicine is a familiar article, and pine-tar shampoos are still a favorite with many people.
Turpentine is the starting point for the making of synthetic camphor used in plastics. To,mention camphor calls to mind a bit of history. When the Japanese took over Formosa in 1895, and gained a monopoly on natural camphor, they ran the price up until in 1918 it sold for $3.75 per pound. Then chemists learned to duplicate it synthetically, and by the time the second world war came 2,000,000 pounds a year was being turned out at a price one-tenth that of 1918.
Among the users of rosin and turpentine are the world’s greatest musicians and artists. No violin virtuoso, or “hillbilly” fiddler for that matter, would think of playing without first having the bow properly rosined so it “takes hold” - of the strings. Great masters of oil and canvas, revelers in paints, easels and brushes, will never accept a substitute for turpentine as a thinner for their rich colors. Even pugilistic artists of the boxing ring, before attempting to spread their opponents “on canvas”, first powder the canvas with rosin dust to make certain of sure footing.
These modern-day uses of extracts from the pine tree are a far cry from what they were used for in the days when
AWAKE!
windjammers and sailing vessels plied the sea lanes of the world. Then, the pine’s resins were exclusively used to caulk and pitch the seams of hulls and waterproof the rigging, and hence the oozings of pines acquired the name “naval stores”.
Extracting the Riches of the Pines
Jamestown, Virginia, the first English settlement founded in America, in 1607, began tapping the natural wealth of the vast pine forest that extended from North Carolina southward to Florida and westward to the Mississippi. The following year this first American industry began exporting naval stores to the Mother Country, which, in turn, issued strict regulations for the care of the infant industry. Now a documentary relic of those colonial days, these regulations, entitled “Instructions for suche things as are to be sente from Virginia”, said in part:
Pyne trees or fiirre trees are to be wounded within a yarde of the ground, or boare a heal with an agar the thirde pte into the tree, and lett yt runne into anye thing that may receyen the same, and that wch yssues owte will be Turpentyne worth £25 Tonne. When the tree beginneth to runne softelye it is to be stopped vp agayne for preserveinge the tree.
There was good reason for this concern over “preserveinge” the trees, considering the butchery methods employed in those days when it was thought the resin from the deep slashes was the tree’s sap. When it was later learned that the sticky pale-yellow oleoresin was manufactured by the tree after the inner hark was wounded, then only shallow “boxes” were cut, and this added many years to the life of the trees. In modern turpentine farming, a business that keeps some 300,000 people busy, trees at least 20 years old and measuring about 10 inches in diameter are cut 4J feet from the ground. Such trees yield about one gallon of crude resin during a season. A late development consists of peeling a band of the bark off all around the tree and spraying the bare wood with a chemical called 2,4-D. This irritates the tree, thus increases the flow of resin and lenghtens the life of the tree.
For 300 years the turpentine industry and lumbermen cut off practically all the Virgin timber of the south, leaving behind them millions of stumps as scars bn the land. Then someone found, out that those stumps were richer in gum than the trees, and so during the last three decades enterprising companies have uprooted and reclaimed the resinousT wealth from these old stumps. It is estimated that there is a 20-year supply of virgin stumps still in the ground. Half of the 2,000,000 barrels of rosin, all of the pine oil, and at least a third of the turpentine today come from stumps.
After "the stumps are cleaned and shredded into small chips two methods are used to extract the chemicals. In one of these methods, called steam distillation, huge stills are filled with chips and hot steam passes up through the wood, melting out the rosin and driving off the turpentine and other volatiles with the steam, which latter materials are recovered by condensing. The spent wood is then used for fuel to generate steam,' or it goes into the making of paper. The second method of extraction employs air-tight retorts or digesters in which the chips are heated on the outside until the wood is turned into charcoal. All the turpentine and tar oils are driven off as gases which are condensed, but no rosin remains or is obtained with this process. After the initial extraction the crude chemicals are refined, broken down into fractions, or they are treated with other substances, until in the end there is a long list of materials that can trace their origin directly to the long-needled southern pines.
Though impressive, the list is not complete, Continued research will find more ways for more people to enjoy more of the pine tree’s resinous riches.
AUGUST 8,' 1949 11
INDIAN DF
IS THERE any woman who has not gone to her wardrobe and with a sigh complained that she just did not have a thing to wear ? What to do about it? Well, in these modern days it is simple.. Just go downtown and browse around a little, and presto! she picks up a charming little creation that is just right, the latest mode with chic and style, just the thing to make her look tall or short, alluring or smart (or at least so said the saleslady); and now milady goes home with a "lift” that is intoxicating to her ego and does wonders for her morale. She goes home happy as a lark, her pocketbook a little flattened, but what does that matter? She has a new dress! Human nature being much the same all over the world, it is with interest that we take a look into the costume and dress of the native Indians of Guatemala, the only descendants of the Mayan race whose styles in clothing and attire have changed but little with the passing of time.
The theme of their clothing is color, all shades, hues and variations, with a mingling of textures and weaving which astound modern experts. Intricate patterns that make the cloth look like tapestry, or shadow cloth of pure white, crossstitch designs, tuffing, plain homespun, checks, plaids, stripes or what have you, aR done on hand looms, or, at thejiest, a fbotjoom which has changed but little, if any, in the past centuries. The Indians borrow their colors from the vivid blue of the sky, or the purple hues of a volcano at sunset, the reds and scarlet of the poinsettas, the bougainvillaea, the green of the forests.
Yes, even the dyes for her yarn come from nature, from plants and tree bark, insects and mollusks. They developed secret formulas both for the dyes and for the setting liquids used to hold colors fast as long as the hardy threads held
together. Red, the color of fire, they associate with warmth, life. Blue, the color of their skies, suggests nobility. Yellow to the ancient tribes was the color of sorrow, and ^reen signified eternal life. Purple was alwaya a favorite, and after the conquest when the Indians saw it used for robes of the priests, they adopted it for their own ceremonial textiles.
Traditionally, each woman weaves her own attire, weaving into the cloth the tribal symbols of her family, figures which have been familiar to her from infancy, the art being taught to her by her mother, and her mother's mother before her. Many are proud of their work, and justly so, and put into their weaving all the art and fine work that their skill allows. Often it takes a woman a mtinth or six weeks to weave her blouse. The cheap, carelessly done work is for the tourist; her garment is made with great care and worn with pride. No piece, however great the pride of the artist, was ever made completely perfect. Even in the finest textiles to be worn’bythe highest dignitaries or used in the most sacred rituals, one small patch would be left undecorated or made with different colored threads. "Only the gods and their works are perfect? What Indian would dare to equal them!
Blouses and Skirts
The hiiipil or blouse of the Indian woman is her chief showpiece and one of which she is very proud. Its construction is primitively simple, a simplicity that adds to its beauty* Two strips, a yard or more in length, are woven on a hand loom* The two strips are sewed together with bright-colored yarn, a strip is cut out, or left unsewed to allow for the neck, and the huipH is finished* These vary in different sections. While some are stitched under the armhole, some are left loose so as to hang slightly over the belt. Sometimes the brown skin shows between the huipil and the skirt. Or sometimes it is worn long enough to give extra length, serving the purpose of a petticoat, at which times it is tucked inside of the skirt.
Usually it is a heavy and modest covering; only in the section known as Coban the brown skin shows through the blouse* It is said that when the “fathers” of the church came to this section they found the Indian women wearing nothing but the skin provided by mother nature, and they were so “shocked” that they offered them their mosquito netting to make blouses; whence come the white net blouses used by the Indians of Coban to this day. Even yet in the hot coastal villages, the women go without blouses.
Next come the skirts, which are varied also, but actually full into two classes, those that are tightly wrapped around the hips, and the pleated kind, very full and gathered and which require from 8 to 12 yards of material. The skirt lengths are called cortes, and
,*/*££*£ are sold in exactly these dimensions, nei-
' ther more nor less. In some villages it is the, custom to wear the skirts down to the ankle, long, graceful and flowing, others wear them only to the knees, while others halfway to the ankle. This is less complicated than the ever-changing hemline of the modern miss, first long, then short. To save wear, the pleated skirts are hemmed on both sides so that either one can serve as top or bottom. How is this for practicality?
Everything in “Purse”
The belts are an important part of the dress, as they are ofteh necessary to hold the upper and the lower garments together. Some are brightly colored, while others are plain; some m intricate designs with fringes and woolen balls that dangle in rhythm with their steps. If stiff and narrow, the sash is wound many times about the woman's waist. If wide, it is looped around from two to five times to form a firm girdle, giving her strength to balance her heavy load that she carries on her head. In addition, the sash serves as purse or pockets for the candles to be burned at the village church, for the pennies she has earned selling her wares at the markets, or for any other thing she might want to conceal or put away for safekeeping.
Then there are the shawls; generally used for wraps. When not infuse they are folded over one arm or worn with a casual air on the head. But most common of all they arc used to carry the babies on their mother's hack, thus leaving the arms of the mother free to balance herself, or to do her work.
Any modern woman kno^s ^that her frock, no matter how dashing, cannot be exactly right without her hair done in just the right and correct manner. Hence long periods are spent in the beauty parlor, sitting for hours'under the driers, putting “permanent” curls in her tresses in order to appear her best. Her Guatemalan sisters give a lot of attention to their hair too, and there is a variety of tribal ways to wear one's hair. Hats are never worn, absolutely never, and if they were to use them they would seem odd, and it would be difficult indeed to find a chapeau that would fit in with their multicolored costume. They are far prettier in the native way of fixing their hair with bright ribbons and halos.
A word also about their jewelry. This is varied; they especially like old silver coins, strung in a necklace with bright-colored beads. The heavier the coins, the better; the old Spanish pieces of eight are in great demand among the highland Indians, and some wear strand after strand around their neck. There are also beautiful silver love chains, some with silver cubes and sometimes with pendants which are quaint, cut-out figures made from flat silver. In some villages unmarried girls wear quantities of ornaments but discard all except one . necklace when they marry. In other villages it is the married women who gleam and tinkle. The well-dressed Indian also wears earrings of gold or silver. Some pierce their ears in several places through which they slip thin woolen strands and knot them in small tassels.
The footwear is the simplest of all: most commonly it is nothing more than their brown feet. In the city it is common to see simple sandals called caites, consisting of a leather sole and thongs to tie it about the ankle.
Free from Style Dictators
These Indians are not swayed by a central style center such as New York or Paris; they rather cling to the styles of their village, while in another village just a few miles away the styles may be entirely different. One sectional costume shows a blouse of white into which have been woven little men and women holding hands, also with a child between them, and these are done in shades of green, orange, purple and blue. The skirt is red, with green and yellow stripes, while the sash that is wound tightly around the waist is of red, purple, orange, green and black.
In another section dose to the beautiful mountain lake Atitldn, the women also use a blouse of white background with all sorts of little figures woven into the cloth, little birds, chickens, aiiitti&ls, and for good measure a few cross-stitches woven into the material. Then around tfie neck is more embroidery done by hand, of more little animals. The skirt is of red, blue and white, the shawl done in the same colors. The blouse'of Cubulco looks as though it were an all-over embroidery design of flowers, circles, and rickrack effect done in bold red, yellow, green and white on a dark-blue background. The skirts of San Marcos are as gay as sunshine in their orange and yellow hues, partly if not all woven in silk threads. .The blouses of Coban are of pure-white, but around the neck is another riot of color, the same birds, dolls and little animals to be seen, done in the brightest colors that catch the eye and imitate the colors of the bright flowers of Guatemala.
Do not think for one minute we are going to slight the men; they too go in for design and color. Ther$ are those of a section known as Todos Santos whom some call “Uncle Sam Boys” (although they have never heard of Uncle Sam, and do not particularly care about hearing); They wear red-and-white-striped trousers, which look something like the ghastly pajamas worn by some, and a dark-blue jacket completes the outfit. Around their head is wound a red scarf, and on top is perched a straw hat In Chichicastenango the men wear striking costumes which have been borrowed from the sixteenth century. These consist of knee pants and a jacket done in a brownish black wool which comes from the black sheep of the mountains.
The men of Solola attire themselves with sort of panties or shorts (without elastic) made of red-and-white-striped homespun with little figures running crosswise in the material. Over this he wears a sort of apron, or skirt of black-and-white-checked wool, fringed at the bottom, resembling the Scotch kilt. Sometimes his pants show from under the apron, coming just below his knees, or sometimes they are worn above the apron, giving the appearance of not wearing any pants. In hot countries the pants are rolled way up reminiscent of the G string. The laborers wear just a piece of cloth over their back to protect them from the hot sun, always with a machete in hand, sometimes making a fierce-looking appearance.
. Almost all the men wear hats, sometimes both hats and scarves. First the scarf is wrapped around the head, then comes the hat. Some use a black straw hat, with a flat crown resembling a black sailor hat worn by milady. Around the brim is wrapped a red plaid kerchief with blue and white mingled in. Quite a dashing hombre when completely dressed! The men too wear sashes, some of plain red or purple wool, others for ceremonial wear are embroidered with tribal designs.
The Indians of San Martin Chili Verde use a quaint combination wedding costume, the wedding blouse becomes the wearing apparel for the bride, the lower half of the sleeves going to the groom, which are sewed to the upper half of his sleeves. As the designs on each portion are alike, one can identify man and wife,
“Pockets” and “Work Clothes”
Every Indian must carry his little bag, which is almost part of his dress. Bags are the pockets of the village men, whose costumes, when invented, did not include pockets. Some of these are of wool, handsomely woven in black and white using as decoration a row of horses with little men on top. This comes from the ancient thought of the Indians that the horse and rider were one. Other bags are woven of sisal, hemp or jute fiber in a tight or loose mesh in all shapes and sizes. These bags- or balsas are handy holders to carry their food, money and papers.
On the back of the Indian is worn a cacaste or carry-all. Ordinarily a carryall is not a part of costume, but those worn on the backs of Indian traders and bearers during most of their waking hours must be considered articles of dress in Guatemala. A wooden crate set on short legs, a cacaste is between three and four feet high. It is the Indian badge of servitude, a peculiar contrivance which consists of several shelves. It contains a vender's merchandise, chickens, oranges, or anything they have to carry on their long journeys. To the outside is tied a small bundle of resinous firewood, small onions and garlic, a eoffe pot, a box of matches, a raincoat and extra poncho. When fully loaded it may weigh as much as 200 pounds. This is carried by a wide leather headband which crosses the forehead just below the hairline.
So Guatemala is not just a city and land of churches, plazas, buildings and roads. The dominant note above all comes from the Indian masses. In the yesterday of the past, conquerors claimed the land of the Mayans, adding great cathedrals and beautiful fountains, but the Indian art and dress continue on. Today the fountains are still flowing, and graceful, erect Indian maidens with their primitive water jugs go for water. They are garbed in weavings of great beauty, combining the old with the new and enriching a land of entrancing charm. Dress is not the biggest problem of their lives, but as in all parts of the world it is a dominating factor.
It is said that a leading Paris designer has her “scout* out among the villages, whose observations may lead someday to a "Guatemala Season”. So, ladies, do not laugh at the color schemes of the Indian's dress; maybe someday you, too, being slaves to fashion, may find yourselves in brightly colored skirt and blouse, embroidered with little animals, dolls and birds, a frock wTith a "new look” as old as the people of Guatemala. —Awake! correspondent in Guatemala.
Inside
ry About Aluminum
AJuminum is good for a Jot of things. It is lignt in weight/although classed as a “heavy metal”. It makes a fine metal for the construction of equipment where lightness is an important consideration and where the metal does not come into constant contact with the hands. Yes, aluminum is good for many things, but it is not good for your insides. And, since some of the soft metal comes oft in the cooking process, enough damage is done to make one sit up and take notice.
C, The facts on the subject are an inside story, tut, since your insides and those of millions of other people are involved, Dr. C. T. Betts, of Toledo, Ohio, has brought out facts which were being covered up. He found from personal experience, experiment and observation how injurious aluminum can be. He has issued an interesting pamphlet on “How Does the Government Suppress the Truth About Aluminum?”
The pamphlet includes a personal narrative. In 1913 Dr. Betts was told by three physicians he had but a few months to live. Dr. Betts is alive today. He cured himself by discontinuing the use of aluminum cooking utensils. He had found that aluminum in contact with mineral water produced gas. He noted how aluminum or alum, mixed with soda and sulphuric acid, was sold as baking powder, to make gas in the dough. The same chemical reaction occurred in the, stomach when aluminum that had come off into the food contacted gastric juices.
He saw that cherries cooked in aluminum and allowed to stand in the vessel left little pits or holes in the metal; jello made in it tasted bitter; other foods prepared in it became dark or almost black; some seemed to be covered with a powdery substance; and still others could not be prepared in aluminum at all. He gave some of these interesting facts to Charles Howard of the Toledo Times, who published them in the Sunday edition as a good story. Alas, poor Howard! He was fired the next day, although he had been managing editor for thirteen years.
<£ That was in 1925. By that time the government of these free United States had instituted an investigation, and the Averill report was issued on the effects of alum and aluminum. Dr. Betts got hold of a copy and put it into the hands of the printer. "The federal authorities demanded that he refrain from using any part of the Averill report, and medics and scientists also wrote him demanding that they be not quoted. Dr. Betts, knowing what he knew, defied the order and published the book “Aluminum Poisoning”. He was arrested.
C Among the many testimonies in the pamphlet as to the harmfulness of aluminum in foods the following are given:
“It is my opinion that the primary result of the introduction into the digestive tract of aluminum compounds would impair the protect!to lining of the intestine and thereafter the effects upon the other cell growth of the body, including the blood cells, would be cumulative/’
“My conclusion is that salts of aluminum are harmful in the human body/’—^Dr. V, C. V.
“Regardless of absorption, aluminum can exert an irritating action on the mucosa of the gastro-intestinal tract without absorption and in the manner already stated it may exert a deleterious action on the food, so changing its quality as no longer to exert the nourishing effect it would have exerted in the absence of aluminum.”;—Dr. A. P. M.
“Aluminum is classed with the heavy metals. . . . When taken internally,, the action is due to chemical local action on the-stomach and intestine—the acid liberating upon the union of metal and protein penetrating to the tissue with an astringent effect. The local reactions are loss of appetite, pain, and discomfort, nausea, vomiting, purging, congestion, hemorrhages resulting from irritant and corrosive action, ulcers, may result from bacterial action on dead tissue.”
C No, aluminum is not good for your insides.
A CONTROVERSIAL question of long standing is whether Catholic priests and nuns should he allowed to marry. The correct' answer is so simple and easy to find that it is surprising that anyone in this enlightened age does not know it.
When God called out of Egypt a people for His name, separated them from the heathen and set up with them a typical Theocracy, He arranged for them to have a priesthood. Those priests were consecrated and set apart to minister before God in His service. Instead of forbidding them to marry they were encouraged, even obligated, to do so in order that the family of Levi might not want a man for God’s service.
The Greek Scriptures, written after the coming of Christ, did not prohibit marriage or set up a compulsory celibacy for the apostles, the bishops (overseers), deacons or elders (presbyters). The Catholic DoUay Bible shows that the apostle Paul makes no distinction between consecrated public servants, a position assumed by the clergy class today, and the others in the congregation when he writes that “marriage [is] honourable in all”, and again, ‘det every man have his own wife.” (Hebrews 13: 4; 1 Corinthians 7:2, Douay) Contrary to the compulsory idea, Paul expressly stated that it was proper for “a bishop to be blameless, the husband of one wife”. Likewise, be says, “let deacons be the husbands of one wife.” (1 Timothy 3:2,12, Dauay) Again, this approved apostle of the Lord, in writing to Titus, tells him to set things in order in the church in Crete, and to “ordain priests in every city”, such as “be without crime, the husband of one wife”.—Titus 1: 5, 6, Douay,
AUGtJST 8, 1949
If celibacy is compulsory and mandatory upon popes, cardinals, bishops, and even the lowly parish priests in an organization that claims it is the true apostolic church, then how is it that many of the apostles themselves and other prominent ones in the early church were married men? Philip the evangelist was* a married man who had at least four daughters. (Acts 21:9, Douay) The brothers of the Lord Jesus—James, Joseph, Simon and Jude—who were prominent figures in the early church, were, no doubt, married men. (Matthew 13:55; 1 Corinthians 9:5, Douay) According to some ancient opinions, the apostle Paul himself was a widower. At any rate, he asserted he had the right and privilege to have a wife if he so desired, "even as the rest of the apostles.” (1 Corinthians 9: 5, Am. Stan. Ver,) Or take the case of the apostle Peter, who the Roman Catholic Hierarchy insist was the first pope: if celibacy is compulsory, then what was Peter doing with a mother-in-law?—Matthew 8:14,Douay,
While the Bible nowhere makes celibacy a mandatory requirement for God’s devoted servants, it does speak, favorably of voluntary singleness. It was Christ Jesus who said: "All men take not this word, but they to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs, who were born so from their mother’s womb: and there are eunuchs, who were made so by men: and there are eunuchs, who have, made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take it.” (Matthew 19:11,12, Douay) Christ himself was an example of one of those who "have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven”, not physically as some have erroneously in-
terpreted this Scripture, for indeed He remained whole and perfect in body, an unblemished sacrificial “Lamb”. Jesus voluntarily made himself a eunuch by refraining from marrying in order that He might devote His entire life to God's service without responsibility to a wife or family.
This is the substance of Paul's advice to young men and women as set forth in 1 Corinthians 7:1-35. Says the apostle: “As to the matters of which you wrote me, It is an excellent thing for a man to remain unmarried. But there is so much immorality that every man had better have a wife of his own. and every woman a husband of her own.” The apostle was not pff-center on this matter. He did not enforce celibacy or insist upon it as the inflexible rule of life for each and every Christian. What. Paul is saying is this: If it comes to choosing between immorality and wedlock, then the servant of God who has no control is free to choose, and should choose to do the honorable thing; he should marry. “But if they cannot control themselves, let them marry. For it is better [not only for themselves, but also for the whole community] to marry than to be on fire with passion.”—1 Corinthians 7:1,2,9, An American Trans,
Origin of Compulsory Celibacy
There being absolutely no Scriptural authority and no Christian or apostolic precedent in the Bible for prohibiting priests and nuns from marrying, one naturally wonders where the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, and to some extent the Greek and Russian Orthodox clergy, got the ideas of compulsory celibacy, monasteries and convents. Centuries before Catholicism opened up shop in Rome the Buddha priests in Burma, Siam and China had monasteries, where their priests vowed celibacy, poverty and obedience to their superiors, Buddhism, in turn, was an offspring of the ancient paganism set up by Nimrod and his queen mother, Semiramis. Says
Alexander Hislop in The Two Babylons, page 219:
Now, while Semiramis, the real original of the Chaldean Queen of Heaven , . . was in her own person, as we have already seen, the very paragon of impurity, she at the same time affected the greatest favour for that kind of sanctity which looks down with contempt on Gods holy ordinance of marriage- . . . Strange though it may seem, yet the voice of antiquity assigns to that abandoned queen the invention of clerical celibacy, and that in the most stringent form. (Ammianus Marcellinus' History, lib. xiv. cap. 6, p. xxvi)
This then explains why compulsory celibacy is so widely spread among the priestly class of paganism, both male and female. The Vestal virgins of old pagan Rome, whose duty it was to keep the fires burning in the temple of Vesta, the goddess of fire, were bound to perpetual virginity, the same as Catholic nuns of today. But, unlike the nuns, if they slipped and lost their chastity, Webster's Dictionary says, they were buried alive. The pagan priestesses of Scandinavia's . old goddess, Freya, were likewise doomed to perpetual virginity. Prescott, the historian, was “astonished to find so close a resemblance between the institutions of the American Indian, the ancient Roman and the modern Catholic” in the matter of celibacy. Describing the religion of the Incas, he says: '
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