Awake!, June 22, 1950

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THE FAILURE OF TECHNICAL SCIENCE

Can Cancer Be Cured?

Well, Here I Am in Puerto Rico!

Vegetation Blankets the Earth

JUNE 22, 1950

SEMIMONTHLY

THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL

N*wv vcureev that ana aJjjIa to keep yuu awake to the vital Igauo* cf our time* mart be unfettered by CEnaorahlp and sei£di Intereat*, “Awake!” haa no fatten. It reccgnita* facta, faces fscti, ta free to publish facto. It U not bound by political ambttton* nr obligation*; it is unhampered by advertisers whose toe* must not be trodden on; It u unprejudiced by traditional creeds. Thio Journal keeps itself free that it nuiy speak freely io you. But it does not abuse it* freedom. It maintain* integrity io truth.

“Awake V* use* the regular news channel*, but is not dependent on them, It* own correspondent* are on all continents, In scores of nations. From the four comers of the earth tlieir uncengored, on* the'scenes reports come to you through these columns. This journal’s viewpoint is not narrow, but Is international It 1* read In many nation*. In many languages, by persons of all ages. Through its pages many field* of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural wonders—why, its covers age is as brood as the earth and as high as the heavens,

“Awoke!” pledges itself to righteous principle*, to exposing hidden foe*'and subtle dangers, io championing freedom for all, to comforting moumars and strengthening those disheartened by the failure* of a delinquent world, rraecting sure hope tor the establishment of a right' eou* New Worli

Get acquainted with “AwakeP Keep awake by reading “Awake!”

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CONTENTS

The Failure of Technical Science

Modem Boeiiieaa a Sadiatic Killer

The Children Reap the Harvest

Technology to Blume for a Jittery World G

Which Wsy tn a New World t

KoRAland Enslaved by Religious Customs

Marriage Customs Are Also Strange

Crying Need for Deliverance

Can Cancer Bo Cured?

Description of the Kilter

Exhaustivo Search for the Cause

Treatment and Cure

Wp)L Horn* I Am in Puerto Rico!

Religions Promises

Statue Worship

Common Superstitions

Vegetal ion Bfanhete the Earth

Variety of Specie*

Plante of the Desert

From Jungle to Alpine

‘•Thy Word I* Truth"

Juaepb ud His Good-Will Brother*

Sweden Think)ng About Hell-Fire

Watching tho World

flWAKEl

®^Now it is high time to awake.’’—Romans 13:11 9j

Volume XXXI Brooklyn, N. Y., June 22, i960 Number IS

THE FAILURE OF TECHNICAL SCIENCE

^TVrELLj what about it? So the world

W is not growing any simpler. It grows more complex all the time. And what am I supposed to do about it!” The big gruff man in the blue denim jacket, riding home on the streetcar, sounded snappish and tired out from his day’s work at the railroad yards.

The little man riding beside him, who might have been a timekeeper or a shoe clerk, buried his sharply beaked nose back into his newspaper, piqued. <rWell, you needn’t snap my head off, Mister!” the little man defended himself, *T was only reading you what I see here in the paper.”

What Shorty read to him were portions of the interview a reporter had with a doctor who had just published a book entitled “Why Presidents Die Young”. The doctor was saying that eight of the first ten.presidents lived over seventy years, but only three of the last ten lived out their allotted time. That impressed Shorty. He read more about the presidents, to himself. ■

"How do you explain that despite all the advances in medicine, the twentieth-century presidents die an average of fourteen years earlier than their predecessors did?” the doctor asked. WVe’ve had thirty-two presidents, and here’s the surprising thing: the first dozen or so died of intestinal disease. The last twelve died from heart disease. Most of our early presidents had served in the army. Sanitation was bad, and most of them suffered from cholera or dysentery. There’s nothing wrong with sanitation facilities today, but the strain of the job has been stepped up.”

But not only the president’s job. A few evenings later Shorty-read about how the president wms finding it impossible to keep a full staff of top policy aides to assist him—it was “fatigue” and “the limelight’s woes” that accounted for a full third of the men he lost—men who surrendered Cabinet posts and the chairmanships of the highest military and civilian commissions the country has to offer. It is a wo rid-known fact that the men who rule the earth are mostly all sick men, desperately sick, many of them. As Burnet Hershey observed:

The Great Man has it, yes, but what precisely is it he has? James Forrestal' had it. Ernest Bevin has it. Stalin has it; the French and Italian leaders have it. But what is it, this international malady that so often strikes suddenly at the life machine of men over fifty? Medical literature abounds with names for it-— hypertension, anxiety, neurosis, nervous stomach; and with it comes that group of frightening diseases—nervous heart, high blood pressure, and finally the cardiac killers, angina pectoris and coronary thrombosis.

Living in a time-clock atmosphere, tensed by a war of nerves that could burst out into mortal conflagrations no one knows when, earth’s high-shining leaders have been debased into becoming “addicts of soda mints, digitalis and sac-

JUNE 22, 1950 3

charine", ‘'Worry and fear" are producing ulcers that are killing government leaders the world over, declared the men who diagnosed them—a group of doctors meeting not long ago at Rhone, France. Take a glance at a sample list of victims of ulcers and similar woes. Among Americans there are Generals Marshall, Eisenhower, Clay and Bedell Smith; Senators Austin, U, delegate to the U. M, and Vandenberg; Hershal Johnson of the U. N. Security Council. Then there’s Britain's foreign secretary Bevin and his tired heart and high blood pressure; Prime Minister Attlee and his “duodenal □leer". Russia’s foreign minister Vishin-aky has the same; Stalin's heart tnmble lias made news for years. The East German Republic’* first premier. Otto Grote-wolt, was recently knocked out by a ‘‘nervous breakdown". Cancer plague* several of France’s present or erstwhile leaders. Italy’s prime minister De Gos-{)eri is a victim of arthritis. On and on the ist goes. None escapes, high or low. "The number <if secondary diplomats in the Foreign Office at the H.N, who are on the aide list shows that there is plenty of grief in a great many less important stomachs. And no wonder!" concludes Mr. Hershey in The Nation. “As we watch these statesmen, high and low, elegant in their striped trousers, but pale, tense, edgy, we ask the disquieting question: Ua the fate of the world, our fate, in the hands of sick men ?’"

Jtodern Bueinees a Killer

What about the senator who announced, just after his election defeat, that he was “retiring to a soft business job"f Maybe there are some “soft" business jobs, but just as surely as this gentleman starts keeping step with his fellow executives, just that surely he will keep his ulcers, and the first thing he knows he'll wind up in the wilted ranks of those “tired businessmen”. Take the Philadelphia industrialist who sent his 63 top executives to the Benjamin Frank-

Llu Clinic of the Pennsylvania hospital for a health checkup. The clinic, charging a fee of $150 per head and providing 57 specialists tolook them over, inside and out, reported that only 13 of the 63 “patients" did not need either a doctor or a psychiatrist. They figured the psychiatrist wns needed in most cases to convince the executives that they “must slow down and stop worrying”.

TIipjsh 63 men were a sample of 2,000 “tired businessmen" studied by the clinic. Why do such a vast number of modem businessmen totter on the verge of an emotional nr physical breakdown, the clinic wanted to know. They mine up with five contributing reasons: (1) He (the businessman) stuffs his troubles into his brief cane and carries them home at night (2) He goes out to lunch and - does more business than eating. (3) He cannot lake a real vacation, thinks he’s too indispensable. (4) He need* a hobby, takes one or two weeks’ strenuous workout during the year, and that’s supposed to cure his ailments. (5) No moderation in work or play. Most common ailments found among businessmen are coronary artery disease, hypertension (high blood pressure) and ulcers of the stomach. Can you sec any difference between the obituary of a politician and a bank president!

Ordinary People Smitten Too

“But I'm just an ordinary nobody," you say. “Like that railroad man mentioned in the first of this article, Zin not getting myself worked up to a case of ulcers over anything." But just in ease, you call up an insurance man and ask him about taking out a policy. He looks over his “Commissioner’s Table”, prepared from a study of the life expectancy of “ordinary nobodies” like you and me. His table shows him that for every 137 persons whose heart stopped 'beating because of the strain of living in 1900, there are 303 being trundled off by the undertaker now.

.4 W A K E I

Then maybe you do get a little worried, like Shorty, ana commence to take notice of such things in the newspapers. One day you read that the U. S, Health Department’s surgeon general Leonard A. Scheele estimates that 976 out of every 1,000 persons, young and old, are suffering from one or more afflictions, and that at least 25,000,000 Americans are victims of chronic diseases. Somebody reminds you that back in 1942 the induction centers rejected 39.2 percent of the draft registrants because of poor health. Cancer deaths have doubled since 1900. How much the living strain has to do with causing cancer is. not known yet. But as for its next-of-kin, the ulcer, Dr. Harry Gauss, an eminent stomach ulcer specialist, says: “It has been well established that the emotions of fear, worry, anxiety and resentment alter the normal secretion of the stomach resulting in engorgement, increased activity and hyperacidity. These are the very psychic impulses transmitted to the stomach "by the vagus nerve, often called the 'worry nerve’.”

Grandmother used to smile serenely and declare, “Why, Pa and I never had a short word.” How times have modernized!1 In today’s smart world the- ripsnorting pace of everyday living has changed the atmosphere in the home and upset many a love nest. Mrs. Begina Flesch, of the United Charities of Chicago, wj.wcbi'i'ed. from. Lev vwwei atudis.%. that society has grov/n just too complex for human nature to 'endure. Neither husband nor wife any longer feels secure. Often the wife hesitates to give up her financial independence. Under these or similar circumstances, things are bound to happen. A rash of everyday troubles begins to chaff and fray their nerves. Little things start irking. Trouble brews. Fire smolders. One night there is a minor incident, followed by a major catastrophe.

The Children Reap the Harvest

Under such conditions, how can the average home life provide a good “emotional climate" for the children? Consequently, outweighing all other causes for upsetting the normal life of children, are the parents themselves. So children too suffer from “nerves”. Dr. George Mohr brands all kinds of childhood problems, such as chronic constipation, bed-wetting, tics of various sorts, loss of appetite, etc., we. xv, W Vnt

of emotional disturbances. The Journal of Pediatrics showed from u study of hospitalized infants that there is “an intimate tie between a child's physical health and his emotional care (or lack of it)”. Distraught emotional life can cause everything from tooth decay to osteo-arthritis, the specialists say. Anxiety7 is found to be contagious, and, in a world supercharged with anxiety, even the “psychiatrists get it from their patients, babies catch it from their mothers, animals contract it from humans and other animals”.

So the children reap the grim harvest of this twentieth-century civilization, wherein their parents are unable to live normal lives under its strains and stresses. Divorce breaks up one out of every three to five marriages. Broken homes arc so much the rule that the majority of American children have experienced a major family break before reaching eighteen years of age. What is true in kmwnya is Vrue aii vver C'nristwnfitnii, and more so in some lands. The Census Bureau estimates that modern American society is turning out 840,000 cases a year of “markedly neurotic" children, and that one pupil in every twenty in school is a potential mental hospital case.

But think of this ■ It’s bad enough that one out of every twenty American adults is doomed to spend part of his life in a mental institution. Yet not one, but three out of every twenty American children suffer from mental and emotional trou-

bles grave enough to call for profee* aionai treatment Every seventh A inertcan child is a victim of a neurosis. Of these pitiful young lives, Magazine Digest said:

These are the children who commit two murders somewhere in this country every day; who, before they enter their Leena, take their own lives at the rate of one a week; who, white still under 15, are committed to publie mental institutions at the rate of 185 a month. They are the juveniles who perpetrate nearly 1,000 crimes a day—crimes serious enough to be recorded, and the perpetrators fingerprinted by the F.B.l. They are the children responsible for the nation’s all-time high in juvenile delinquency, alcoholism and immorality.

Technology io Blame for a Jittery World

What is that evil genius that is driving the world mad! How can it be combat Ind and the world freed from fear! Political soothsayers I.ry to mollify the peoples' nerves by conjuring up visions of a bright new world of tomorrow freed by man's political control of technological sciences. Educators, like Dr. Robert M. Hutchins of the University of Chicago, point out that it is a different age from mankind's pant because the future clearly holds but one of two possibilities: total extinction of the human race, or life on a paradise earth. Atomic energy, he says, will change all concepls of living, eradicate all limitations such as space, time, communications: cure most if not all human maladies, produce a world of new dements and products; emancipate everyone from drudgery; guarantee everyone unlimited leisure; and prolong the life span until everybody can expect “to live as long as Methuselah".

Then why should not humanity lift up its bead end rejoiee! Why not put away anxiety, fear, the feeling of insecurity, if it is so true that we face a new world! Because even the wildest prognosticators, like Dr. Hutchins, bave to face so many fear-breeding doubts about the fa-taro that hope and faith in it are despoiled, All of Dr. Hutchins' Utopian dreams are dependent, he admits, upon the chance that lifb on earth is not extinguished by atomic wars and other forms of genocide. But, granted this does not overtake us, he sees a worse fear: “Our paramount problem, our chief hazard, in the atomic age, w what to do with our spare time,”

Italics arc added to accentuate the dilemma. Here is humanity already bo bewildered and unnerved and jittery that the world faces a breakdown, because everyone's life is overburdened with fear, worry, anxiety. But if the future, in which scientific technologies offer assurance of abundance of plenty, freedom from overwork and unlimited leisure, if that very future of leisure, of human nature left to itself with limitless time on its hands is the thing to be feared most, then what hope is there for a man-made better life t

No, science and its streamlined methods of production, the technologies, will not solve the problem of how to gain repose and peace of mind and heart. If it could, why is there not some proof of it in the present state! Already the workweek has shrunk from 60 and more hours to 40 hours. People nowadays do not work so hard manually. Thank’s to better tools and mechanical power, one hour’s work by the average American laborer today is worth four times as much ($1.32) as it was one hundred years ago (32c). Mr. American enjoys twice as much spending money now us he did fifty years ago. Eighty thousand new patents are recorded each year. People nowadays are already granted more leisure. But why are they less happy! Why do they feel more enslaved! more crowded! more harassed! Why do they bemoan the loss of the “good old days" the more technology progresses!

It takes more than machines and assembly lines to create an environment wherein people exercise their brains, ini-

tiative and independence, charged the dean of Barnard College at the New York Herald Tribune forum. “Our highly esteemed civilization has resulted in an environment which destroys the very qualities which have produced it A generation which has been born in confusion, suckled in tumult, reared with cars, radios, movies, comics and picture magazines can hardly be expected to mature as reflective, sober, well-rounded young people.”

Probing even deeper for the causes for a sick world, one serious thinker, in the book The Failure of Technology, puts his finger on the fact that men hope to free themselves by the very means that is enslaving them—technology. Mechanism does not create wealth in the true sense; it devours the earth’s resources like a vampire and transforms them into synthetic, artificial, deceptive wealth. Instead of saving labor, it increases labor, by devising more and more ways of channeling more and more human efforts toward making scientific assembly lines turn out more and more tinsel doodads. “The keen unpassioned beauty of a great machine,” in the hands of its exploiters, enslaves more and more human lives, transforms them into robots, “the unconscious realization of which is the ground of modern despair,” said Dorothy Thompson.

The most despairing thing about it is this: You take a highly technical industry, say atomic energy; it demands strict control by some absolute authority. When every other industry and enterprise is highly developed and technical, they too must be tightly controlled. Now when the whole society is so developed, there have to be created vast bureaucracies of business and government to control everything. That means that the technological state cannot exist except in totalitarian form.

Witness Hitlerian Germany. Witness Mussolini’s “corporate state” system. Par from bringing more leisure into human life, such technologically organized societies drive people into perpetual motion.

Why f Because evil minds seize control of the processes of production and government and turn them into instruments that serve selfish purposes. It is this very fear of the devouring machine of the modern mechanized world that creates the “psychological insecurity characteristic of our life”. People are craving Bucuiiiy whidh never can 'be' attained, because the very means they are banking on to free them is driving them into perpetual motion, into permanent enslavement.

Even Thomas Jefferson foresaw from his day that the state of free people would pot survive the immense centralization process accelerated by the machine.

Why so? Well, look -what scientific methods produce: They produce more of 'jiW mui “luxu

ries”—things people want; more cars, radios, newfangled homes and furnishings, and a realm of ever-growing gadgetry. In a word, science produces all of the things a man fancies he needs to gratify his pleasure. Man-made scientific marvels offer things that accentuate the cravings of the selfish nature, the love of more and more of everything. But science offers nothing to safe-check human nature against itself. And there is the great unholy fear back of it all.

What is the solution? Some say what mankind must have is a form of centralized government so strong, so absolute, yet so benevolent, that it is capable of taking possession of all earth’s resources and the means of exploiting them, and supervising the operation of government and economics fairly for everyone. That way no individual or group of individuals can seize control of resources or technological methods and exploit them selfishly at the expense of the masses. Men would live in a collee-

tivized society* Witness cornmunifft Russia, they say.

But others throw up their hands in horror at that, pointing out that there is no more ruthless, selfish and nnbenevolent system than communism. What the world needs is a united nations of hu inanity supervised by the month and Rthiee of orthodox religion, they say-Witness the 1,000-year reign of the “holy” Boman Empire.

lfWhat*s the difference whether it's world communism or world papismT' the history student speaks ujl “T have studied from the Roman Church's own books about the ancient guild systems which wore nothing but 7?b*ad corporations’, *a bastille where a greedy and jealous oligarchy was entrenched? The Church cites modern examples of the kind of society it advocates, and these are Mus-Mulinfs Fascist Italy, Salazar's *Christian Socialisin’ in Portugal, and so on. Hierarchy publications say so, in Relation of Catholicism to Communism, Fascism tend Democracy, The Sound Old Outlets and iVhy lltr, Guilds Decayed, dis tributed by the National Catholic Welfare Society/

Which Way to a New World?

So mankind stands at a crossroads. A call from the “left" would lead him to a collectivized state, wherein supreme authority is chimed to be invested in man. A call from the "right" would lead him to a corporate state system, wherein the supreme authority is claimed to be invested in God through a man posing as Christ's vicegerent on earth. It is a united world of nations of enslavement in either case, wherein whatever technological methods are used will not he operated by unselfish, benevolent hands. -

As for orthodox religion, it mustadmit its own worthlessness. It does little more than send up a desperale death cry for some tiling dynamic, a faith to live by, a transforming power that will renovate, regenerate, and establish in lasting se-

curity the hopes for life in a clean new World. Religion has not one iota of such life-giving power, no curb against man's inner nature. Why not? Became such a power cannot generate from man's own precepts any more than life itself can ^and that is all that religion is compounded of.

Yet the Bible teaches such a power. The Bible teaches a government that in to come to earth. The King of that government will wipe out all wickedness find all tendencies toward sei fish ijess and Hover permit such to operate again. The Bible leaches that God's Kingdom government under Christ, would commence operations toward earth at the time in history when total wars, famines, pestilences earthquakes, turbulence, violence, and an ever-increasing cresceudo of sorrow and trouble to cause men’s hearts to fail'lbem would prevail. Every prophecy in the Bible poinls to a world crisis that must be here.

So then* is that dynamic power. It io operating earth-wide al randy, drawing the meek, unselfish minority of earth's sincere inhabitants together into an understanding of the Creator’s purposes toward tho earth. They know from the Bible that God is about to takO" out of the way all offending, fear-inspiring things, including this world's ruthless systems and its god, the Devil. They know that righteous rulership is about to be inctal/ed over earth, if Gxk? has to appoint His King Christ Jesus to resurrect from death faithful men of old who can be trusted, and in si all them ns princes throughout the earth.—Fsalui 45; Ifi.

Then people won't be left idle in the paradise earth. Theirs will be the happy task of prospering in the constructive works that men dream of and wish to perform under the perfect society. But all sense of insecurity, fear and anxiety will have vanished. Fulfilled will be Isaiahs glorious prophecy (14:7): “The whole earih is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing,’1—Contributed.

w 4 k e f

Enslaved by Religious Customs

From a dark corner in Africa, where superstitious customs hold the people In bondape* conies this interesting, first-hand report. It was written especially for readers of ’'AwaKeP* by a native Xosa girl, who gives you a simple yet vivid picture of tribal life and conditions among her own people.

f 1 HE Transkei is that part of the South X African Cape Province which lies between the Kei and Natal. It is here that the Xosa race of people live. In the rural areas of this land, among one and a quarter million Africans, are found only a handful of Europeans, consisting of traders, officials and missionaries. As a result, ancestor worship exists in a very pure form, and every phase of tribal life is controlled by superstitious beliefs that have been handed down by tradition for many generations. Home life, social standing, economics, marriage ceremonies, and the raising and training of children are all controlled by rigid religious customs,

A Xosa kraal is made up of one to ten or more huts, which are circular in shape and six feet or more in diameter. The walls are of sticks and mud, and the roof of sticks and grass. The floor is smeared with cattle dung, because animals, especially cows, are sacred. According to Xosa custom, a man may have as many wives as he can afford to purchase and keep. Each wife has a hut of her own in the kraal, and the first wife is regarded as the senior one. Air the wives have their meals together in the senior’s hut.

The wives are responsible for preparing the food. Pumpkins or melons are peeled' and put in a big pot and boiled. Some mealies, or ground meal, are poured into the boiling pumpkin and stirred until a thick porridge results. This is the most typical meal in a Xosa home. Women are also responsible for thatching the roofs, plastering the walls with mud and smearing the floors with dung. They share hoeing and reaping with the men, and they fetch wood for the fire from the forest. They must also bring up and care for the children.

It is believed that the ancestors, who are supposed to be the guardians of the kraal, dwell with the cattle in the cattlefold and in the space between the cluster of huts and the fold. This area, known as inkundla, is of special religious significance in every Xosa kraal. Wives, therefore, are not to put their feet on it. Cattle and even milk belong to the ancestors. Hence only the men attend to them. Women arc not allowed to approach the area of the house where the milk is stored. Every woman during menstruation must not even taste a single drop of milk.

Respect for ancestors among Xosas is a key to all their customs. For another example, let us take the use of the white clay. Ordinary red clay is used for smearing the body and face, skirts and blankets. This is their way of swanking. But the color white has been dedicated to the ancestral spirits. It is used on special occasions when it is believed that the ancestors are involved. Boys use it when being initiated into manhood, for it is then they are dedicated to the ancestral care. Also a woman who has just given birth uses white clay on herself and her infant up to the stage of weaning, for the ancestors are thought to be responsible for the newborn's life. The witch doctors, the sages and seers of the tribe make great use of white clay.

Marriage Customs A re Also Strange

The father decides that his son is to have a wife. He chooses her for him by appointing a special man, the nozakw-zaku, to moke the purchase. Upon going to the home of a prospective bride, this spokesman is called upon to give something signifying his knowledge of the house, the sazi-mzi, which has a value, say, of about £1, If they accept it, they exclaim: “Do, that we may see,” which means that he should carry on with the payment of the bride price, ikhazi. Lobola is the payment of ikhazi.

Lobola is done in cattle, brought in two by two, not necessarily all on the same day. Unable to reach a settlement on the price, the messengers keep asking to have a loan of the “child”, while the daughter’s parents keep on saying, “we have not yet segh,” meaning they have not been paid enough. All this time the daughter in question may know nothing of the matter, or, if she does, she is considered modest if she says nothing ahout it. It is none of her business. It is the affair of her parents.

Now'lobola is completed. The parents may say to the messengers: “You see, we are going to send the child to the river or somewhere else. She is yours. You can take her away with you.” When the innocent girl, who is ignorant of the

whole deal, is sent to the place she is met along the wayside by the messengers, who ask her to go with them. If she refuses to go, she is dragged away. Her struggling and screaming is in vain, for even though not far from home, nobody comes to the rescue.

Some girls are even killed in the ordeal, because these draggers are usually very rough. They may beat her or strangle her or suffocate her to death by tying something around her throat or mouth to stop her screaming. Her future husband may even be among the group at the time. When brought to the husband’s home she is dressed up as a wife, and there is no turning back then. If still too wild, and the husband fails to win her through sympathy, she is then tied to pillars inside the hut until the husband succeeds in violating her. What is the use of fighting after this, she reasons.

But many times the parents love their daughters too much to follow this procedure. Hence, after lobola is finished, the parents tell the girl: “We are taking you to a new home. You should serve for us there and you should not disgrace our name.” Upon arrival at the bridegroom’s kraal, the marriage ceremony is held in the “holy ground” between the huts and the cattle-fold, the inkundla. The bridegroom and his company move to the inkundla and wait in a tow. The bride and hers follow and go to the bridegroom. All are dressed up in their best attire. All this time women are making a deafening noise as they extol the spouses in poetic bonga fashion. They vocalize in a manner not unlike the shrill clarion of the valiant cock in the small hours of the day, yeyezela, sweeping the way for the bride.

In conclusion, the bride cries and falls on the ground, and is taken into the house. After this the maidens accompanying the bride bring everything belonging to her. All this time they are singing and dancing in a beautiful spectacle. Those that have come to the marriage

awake; are dressed in all colors of the rainbow. Horseback riding and chasing cattle are the sports Of the day.

Cryinff Need for Deliverance

Economically and socially, Xosaland is in a very bad way. People and animals are packed on inadequate lands that are overworked and deeply eroded. Frequent droughts and widespread disease among cattle drive the people into the crowded towns. The huge poll tax also drives men away from their homes. And what a sum it is for the poor Xosa I Widowed women, also seeking a livelihood for themselves and their children, are driven into the. swirling and sinful life of the towns. Some of these resort to the policy of plurality of fathers to their children as a means of solving the subsistence problem.

In these towns there are native locations where a mixture from various parts of the continent are found. Crime is rife, the chief of which are housebreaking, sex misdemeanors and murder. Women brew curious types of kaffir beer and engage in illicit liquor trade. Both men and women, and even girls--and boys of a tender age, become drunk on it. In addition, they smoke dagga, which is another illicit trade. Dangerous gangs lie in wait in dark corners for passers-by. Pregnancy of children is a sight as common as the sun. The death rate at the same time is terrific. How many funeral processions per day leave the location, it is difficult to say. Truly these people are in bondage to sin and corruption as well as ignorance and superstition.

Sickness and disease from unsanitary conditions are high. But this is to. be expected among a people whose medical knowledge is dispensed by ancestorworshiping witch doctors. When a person falls sick, if -witch doctors do not say: “So and so is bewitching him,” they say, “His ancestors are complaining.'* An ox is slaughtered and the hair from its tail is made into a necklace to be worn by the sick person. G oat dung ie smeared on children suffering with the measles.

Education might help to relieve some of these conditions. Every child in the country has the right to attend the mission schools, provided his parents are prepared to supply him -with books, slates and clothing. But because of tribal ideas, many parents are hostile to the idea of sending their children to school. To them it is a waste of time. Boys, they believe, should go to the veld at an early age to look after sheep and cattle. They must learn to plow the fields. When they reach manhood they should prepare themselves to be masters of families.

So, if a boy is kept within the walls of schoolrooms he is despised as a weakling. He finds himself an owl among small birds on leaving the classroom. Young girls also, according to tribal custom, are given early training to be good housewives. Now, if they get up at sunrise and go to school, only to come back at sunset, when will they learn the business of running the home, cooking, nursing children, hoeing and reaping the fields, and plastering houses? A young woman’s chances of being chosen to be a wife are good or bad according to her movements about her home. For these and other reasons the people in general are very illiterate.

No question about it, Xosaland is slavishly held down by its native customs, by its outmoded agricultural methods, by its lack of space for a swiftly growing population, and by its demon-inspired ancestor religion. Human efforts to deliver these people have proved as futile here as in the rest of the world. Liberty for these captives can come only through Jehovah God’s blessed Theocratic kingdom. What joy, hope and gladness it brings to these good people to learn this truth! Native ambassadors as Jehovah’s witnesses are hastening throughout this country proclaiming that God’s new world of righteousness will soon bless all the families of the earth,

Can Cancer Be Cured?

1 . f

DURING a month designated “Cancer Control Month", the American Cancer Sofeiety makes itsr annual drive for money, taking for millions of dollar?. Public officials in federal?state and Meal governments and prominent social and business leaders line up behind the campaign, The radio programs, magazines, newspapers and billboards across the country carry to the people the plea for money under such slogans as “Give to Conquer Cancer”, "Help Fight Can ocr,” “Give and Keep Giving to Help Science?’ Thousands of vohinhwra throughout the nation, 8,000 in New York city alone, are regimented to shako coin cans at entrances to railroad terminals, department stores, postoffiees and on the street comers.

This cancer campaign, run as a repeat performance each year, produces some very definhu results. For one thing, its high-pressure salesmanship, bizarre advertising and crude solicitation methods turn many people away in disgust from the cancer chii^c. ’Wised up” ib the lying propaganda of conunernnl advertisements, these people are inclined to distrust similar soliciting tactics, even if run under the name of charity.

Millions of dollars are coBec ted, yet there is never a puhlic accounting to show into whose pockets all the money goes. Actually only h fraction of the dimes, quarters and dollars ever reach, the worthy cause to which they are contributed. Estimates, such as that of Ei/ff magazine, say no more than 25 percent of the “take” is allocated for research aimed at treatment and cure of the dread disease. This leaves huge sums of money for prim-

ing the annual “suction pump1', for commercial publicity listed by the organisation as “educational", and for operating the/'i’jisli register”end of the machine.

The American Cancer Society seems to be promoting a fear campaign called “cancerophobia”. The scare stories in their pamphlets frighten people into thinking that every cold sore, lump under the skin, birthmark, wart or pain in their stomach or spleen is a tell-tale symptom of cancer. Dr. IX A. Blain, of the American Psychiatric Association, as reported in the New York Times and Time magazine, struck out against these fund-raising boys and their hair-raising scare program. Asa typical example he cited the following from their circulars r

Every three minutes someone in the United

States dies of cancer. No one is Rafe. Thera is one chance in eight that you yourself will be a victim of this deadly killer. Cancer is the greatest and cruclist killer of American women between the ages of 35 and 55. Guard those you love. Give—to conquer cancer.

Admitting all the evils committed in the name of cancer charity, it would he a grave mistake to assume that no good resulted from the concerted efforts ol medical science in fighting the ravHgeb of this plague There arc more than 20C cancer research projects that receive some support from the money raised, there are some 300 cancer-treating din-j.. . ics, and there are 11 cancel , hospitals. Over the years can-

Yr cer research has made Talus'—'j able progress in detecting anc treating this disease, which is. as a killer, second onlv to af-/. ■; dictions of the heart and cir .culatory system.

Description of the Killer

Cancer is no respecter of persons. Father and mother, son and daughter, rich and poor, black and white—millions have it, millions die from it. Unlike bacterial infections, cancer is nonconta-gious and not inherited. It is a “disease of civilization”, for, as Dr. Charles S. Cameron, medical and scientific director of the American Cancer Society, says: “The more complete our medical services and the higher our standards of living, the more cancer we' seem to develop” Cancer has been on a steady increase since the turn of the century, until today 17,000,000 Americans are slated to have cancer before they die. With 87,800 males and 93,700 females dying from cancer in 1946, it is folklore to say it is exclusively a “female disease”. It may break out in any part of the body, but in most cases it is internal. Life magazine prepared the following table showing where primary cancer tumors usually develop.

Organ

Afatc

Female

Brain

2.0%-

1.2 %

Mouth and pharynx

5.2 -

1.2

Respiratory

11.9

3.2

Breast

0.3

18.2

Stomach

19.3

11.0 .

Intestines

11.3

12.6

Rectum

6.5

4.5

Skin

2.5

1.5

Genital

12.6

30.5

Urinary

6.3

3.2

Other

22.1

12.9

Analysis of these figures

shows that

60 percent more men than women die of cancer of the stomach, and three times as many men die of mouth, throat and lung cancer. Nearly half the women die from cancer of the genitals and breasts.

At first a cancer appears as an elevated nodule or looks like a wart, ulcer or tumor, a purely local growth, and if removed in the early stages it is usually checked. There is no pain in early cancer, which seems to be composed of wild cells that multiply rapidly, choking out normal tissue cells and robbing them of their food supply.. Eventually cancer cells spread .to adjoining lymph glands, oi1 take hold of surrounding tissues, in keeping with the name cancer, meaning “crab”. Many times cells of a local cancer get in the blood and spread like wildfire to other organs, sometimes quite distant. For instance, cancer cells from the intestines may attack the brain, or cancer of the breast often lodges in the bones, and once it reaches these vital parts there seems to be no means of stopping its deadly work.

Exhaustive Search for the 'Cause

“Doctors are still far from being able to say what causes cancer, but they suspect many things.” [Time, March 7, 1949) They have spent many millions of dollars and many years of research and still they do not know what causes cancer cells to sprout. They are certain that the standard of living, sanitation and personal hygiene have little if anything to do with cancer. Some of the long dark alleys down which the probers of this mystery have groped include the following:

1. Parasites. Thought to cause cancer in plant and fish tissues, but no proof that bacterial infection causes cancer in man.

2. Viruses. This theory, abandoned by some, is believed in by others. Recently the British* Medical Journal published an article by Dr, William Ewart Gye, a strong believer in the virus theory, in which he said that 90 percent of the other theo-■ lies “can be quietly relegated to the wastepaper basket”. Others, who do not believe the so-called virus found in milk of mice having cancer of the breast is really a virus, refer

to it as a mysterious “milk factor".

3. Hormones. Kot fully understood, there are some indications that hormones from caneer caeee cause the disease if injected in others,

4. Physical injuries. There is no evidence that cancer develops from bruises or bumps of the skin or breasts, but some evidence that constant irritation of a sore may in time cause cancer.

5. Radiation. Overexposure to the sun is thought by some to cause ennccr on the lips, neck, face and hands. Records of 7?000,000 Ol’s showed that 90 percent having cancer of the lip, usually the lower lip (in women it occurs mostly <m upper hp), were on duty in extreme climates where exposure to sun was great. X-ray technicians are susceptible to skin cancer. Radiation from atomic, fissure is likewise thought to cause cancer. Others suggest that cosmic rays arc the eatfse.

6. Heredity. Certain types of cancer arc thought transferable mini one generation to another among lower animals, but not proved so in the case of humans.

7. Diet. Very little is known. TTeavy rice-eaters of Asia seem vulnerable to cancer of liver. Deficiencies in vitamin B-complex and proteins (found in meat, fish, eggs, milk, cheese) are believed by some to be a predisposing cause of mouth cancer. Others label excessive drinking of milk by adults as a source of cancer.

8. Chemicals. Probable cause of cancer in man and lower animals. Chemicalladen soot causes “chimney sweep’s disease", really a cancer of the scrotum. Dr. W. C. Hueper, of the U. S. Public Health Service, warns of danger of occupational cancer in plants and refineries due to fumes and coot containing aromatic hydrocarbons, asphalts, coaltars and petroleum chemicals used in making dyes, plastics, synthetic compounds and medicines. He also pointed to the danger of infecting communities with cancer due to contamination of air, drinking water and soil (hence the food-

stuffs grown on it) by canoe r-inducing chemical wastes. Chemical fertilizers, some question aa a possible cause; others wonder whether manure from diseased livestock on farmland might conf aminate food and cause the disease.

On the matter of chemical pollution of the air, Collier's magazine a few months ago told bow experiments at the Sloan Kettering cancer institute in New York had shown that chemicals taken from aoot off rooftops could induce cancer growth, pr. William E. Smith, of this research institute, declares: "I am convinced that a great deal of cBncer prevention depends not on medical means but on engineering procedures. . . . The constant, heavy pollution of the city’s air with soot is an example of a preventable hazard.”

Whether out of a furnace chimney nr out of a cigarette holder the smoko contains the same type of unburnt tars. Consequently, it. is believed by many authorities that tobacco smoking is a primary cause of cancer. “During my unusual opportunities over a period of years,” writes Dr. Edwin J. Grace in Medical Times, ”1 have noted that cancer of the lip and tongue was almost invariably iissoriatetl with a smoking habit dating back many years.” The chief surgeon of 1lie Washington University’s School of ilcdieine, after checking hundreds of rases of cancer of the lungs, noted that the great majority had been heavy tobacco smokers for the last 20 years. It goes without saying, that the powerful tobne-co trust, that spends a hundred million dollars a year advertising Ilia "coffin nails”, desperately fights every effort to bring these facts tn the attention of the people. .

Investigators seem to agree on this: “There is no single cause for cancer.”

Treatment and Cure

Not every ache or pain is caused by a cancer. Not every lump beneath the ekin

A W A K■$ f

is a cancer; some are cystic. Cancers are tumorous growths, but not all tumors are cancerous. Of the more than 50 suggested tests for hidden cancer there is only one foolproof method of determining whether an abnormality is cancerous, and that is by examining some of the tissue or cells under the microscope, a technique known as biopsy. Blood tests on the whole have not proved reliable, due to "false positive” readings in cases of pregnancy, kidney diseases, TB, etc. Even the latest blood test devised by Huggins, of the University of Chicago, and which was headlined on April 16, is said to be only a “reasonably sure” test.

The great claims that the multimillion-dollar atom smashers would provide sure cures for cancer have proved disappointing. Dozens of different compounds of nitrogen mustards, carbamates, hormones, antibiotics like penicillin and wni YadiuacVixfe

isotopes of iodine, phosphorous and strontium are constantly being tried out on human guinea pigs with very limited success. Manipulation of certain glandular functions have been tried in an effort to arrest certain cancer growths. At one'time it was announced that a substance called guanazolo had been found that arrests, but does not kill, cancer growth. “However,” observes the New York Times, “guanazolo has not yet been tried on human beings, and on no other animals except mice. Many more experiments on animals will have to be made before it will become advisable to test it out on human beings, if ever.”

Of all these possible means of treatment the medical profession, including osteopaths, recognize only three methods that are fairly reliable, namely, by cutting the growth out with surgery or burning it out with radium or with X-ray. These methods are 90-percent effective against skin cancer and 50-per-cent efietiAxe in curing cancer oi Vue breast, but against internal cancer (and most cancer is internal) these methods are relatively ineffective. Cancer is not considered cured if it reoccurs within five years- after the treatment ends.

There is a large school of thought which voices the opinion that medical men under the domination of the powerful American Medical Association are not so interested in finding the cause of cancer, and in preventing it altogether, as, they exe, ww.n

viating the sufferers once they start coming to the doctors for treatment. Emphasis is placed on frequent checkups and “see your doctor often”. Fitz Roy Anderson, of Bar Harbor, Maine, declares: “A cure will never be found so long as billions of dollars are being made from these ineffective but lucrative methods of treating cancer, so long as millions are being dropped into the lap of research, where to find would be to lose one of the most profitable occupations oi aYl ‘times?'

Admittedly, medical scientists do not know the cause of cancer, and their methods of treating it are far from perfect. In fact, some like Sir Leonard Hill, eminent British scientist, thinks the use of radium should be abolished as a curse, and it should be returned to the ground from which it came, for it kills as many as or more than it cures. But however faulty the standard methods of treatment he, are the so-called “cancer” remedies peddled by many outside the A\tA any more effective ? Is there any scientific proof or evidence that the serums, ointments, mineral waters, radium waters, Indian herbs, religious healing, vibrating buzz-boxes, ouija boards, sweat baths, internal irrigations and dietary fads of the self-made medicine men ever cured a single ease of cancer? Yes, there are plenty of “testimonials” that people were “cured”, but was there biopsy proof that these people had cancer in the W, piactA A person nas a pain. The healer says it is cancer. The pain

goes away. The person is cured d cancer! Simple, isn't it?

Typical of this type of therapy is the case reported by the Herald of Health and Naturopath which occurred in Pittsburgh, Pa., last year, A man and a woman were arrested for operating a phony "<ia?ieer cure” shop in the ba semen t of St. Joseph's Catholic clinreh, run by a "Father” Feldmeier. These people claimed they had not only a simple blood test to diagnose cancer, but also a concoction of whole wheat, yen st, distilled water and salt that would bring relief and lengthen the life of the "cancer” victim, In court it was shown that the blood test was a fake and the "cure” was purely psychological. The expose meant nothing lo the poor ignorant and credulous people that hail "faith” in it. As one woman on the stand sobbed: "So the treatment is only psychology! So what! It helped my husband.” After giving this bit of “scientific testimony”, the hysterical woman had to be carried from the courtroom.

Solution to the Problem

Suffering humanity is confronted by a problem. Longing for good news when assaulted by deadly cancer, they want to believe those who claim to have the cure. And now so many imikedlie claim, so few back it up. It is like the hundreds of religious sects, each claiming to have the way to salvation. Each of the healers swears he has the cure for cancer, and each has his followers that swear by him. The facts prove the majority either failures or racketeers. Some back up their claims, at times. Doubtless none has conquered all cases of cancer brought to him. Who is the distressed and anguished person to believe, when he or a loved one is ufilictcdT

Why can not or will not organized cancer research, with its collected millions, put every one of the claimed cures to careful, supervised test, and establish them as cures or silence once for all the bedlam of clamoring claims! If organized medicine, which claims methods outside its sphere are quackery, could so silence these various voices it would prove its position and render great service in exposing those it dubs quacks; but if these other methods are not, all quackery organized medicine might learn something and progress toward a cancer cure. It would not cost medicine much to do this, only a fraction of the 75 percent of funds collected for cancer research that is never used therefor. Its 25 percent used for its own researtdieH need not be touched, but only some of the bulk of money that sticks to selfish fingers.

In this controversy, some side with organized medicine and brand anything outside its pale as quackery. Others, aware of AMA delinquencies, unjustly condemn physicians and surgeons and champion other healing arts just because such henlera oppose A MA and use more natural methods. Doubtless neither of these extremist views is correct

Looking at the wild picture of cancer as a whole it is very plain to see that the miracle men of science and medicine in all of their wisdom, as well as the multitude of quacks in all of their ignorance, have failed to check the rising tide of killing diseases like cancer. Such pestilences constitute a visible sign, marking the time when this present evil world of sin and death under the rule of the Devil will shortly pass away as foretold. (Matthew 24:7; Luke 21:11) It is also a sign that God’s righteous and perfect Kingdom rule will shortly be extended throughout this earth, replacing every evil and wicked thing, removing all pollution of the air and providing a perfect balance of life-giving food. Then body cells will never run wild in cancerous growths that men cannot cure.

Hence in answer to the question, Can cancer he cured? Yes, Jehovah God can, and will!

fate Sam inJ^ueAia^ea/

Puerto Rico Today,1950

Dear Folks,

How full ib the life of a Jehovah’s witness missionary! How educational are the experiences! How interesting the new contacts and thrilling the joys of aiding the Lord’s sheep into the fold! Here from the battlefront of this great war against error we don’t care to he selfish, but are anxious to pass on to you and share with you what we see, hear and learn. Would that you too could be here; hut I’ll do the next best thing and tell yon about it.

You already know that this island is delightful; that the climate is balmy; that the graceful palm invites one to sit in its shade on the white beach and gaze at the white surf bursting out of an expanse of blue ocean; that the mountains are covered with tropical vegetation of palms and ferns as large as trees; that Irere grow coffee, sugar, bananas, oranges, pineapples, and tobacco; and that many of the country folk live in little huts made of palm branches, with the good earth for their floor. We enjoy all the beauty that Jehovah has bestowed upon this “paradise isle”, as it is rightly called, and there is much to tell; but there is another angle to the life here which we are privileged to enjoy, and that is what I am going to tell you about.

As we go from house to house these exceptionally hospitable people invite us in to hear our message. What an opportunity to become acquainted and ex-JUNE 22, 1950

change ideas’. The North Americans have many superstitions, such as the horseshoe and the rabbit foot and fear of the black cat and walking under ladders. So, here too we learn of customs new and interesting. The majority are of Spanish origin, for, after all, Spain is Puerto Rico’s.political and religious mother.

On November 19,1493, Columbus planted the cross on the western coast of Puerto Rico, and in 1508 Ponce de Leon brought with him priests to baptize the Indians and make Roman Catholics > of them. The Spaniards brought in Cuban prisoners and Chinese slaves from the Philippines to build the mountain roads, one of which required over thirty years. Then came the Negroes, and lastly came the North American to add his ideas. This Indian-Spanish-Cuban-Chinese-Negro-North American mixture of races gave birth to a conglomeration of quaint customs, superstitions and religious practices.

Early colonmevs of Hispanic America, when founding a town, would place it under the “protection” of a patron saint or holy object. Every town celebrates the feast day of its saint with much ceremony. There are games, horse races, cockfights, and special religious ceremonies. With much booming and banging, fireworks are set off to remind the townsfolk of the occasion and to call them to the public square, the plaza. Almost all towns follow the same pattern, having the Catholic church in the plaza, which is always in the center of town. Thus the church is the center of attraction. Each church has a statue of the guardian saint assigned to the town. On this special day the saint, perhaps the “virgin” in this particular town, is given a special treat.

The statue is taken from its place and honored by being paraded around the town, accompanied by chanting priests in all the frills and lace, a choir, religions groups and a throng of worshipers. Around the plaza she is carried and back to the church, where she is welcomed as though it were her first arrival. There follows more ceremony, a dousing of “holy" water, and back she goes to her shelf to await her next hig day, a year later. On these special 'holy days the church's setting is a maze of carnival paraphernalia, the major part lieing gambling devices of every imaginable type. It is all a noisy affair which eon tinucs for week, with rmisir loudly amplified to the milling crowd,

Christ is also remembered—that is, at least His birth and death. The native musicians in the country and in the cities begin weeks in advance announcing that the time to celebrate Christ's birthday is near. In little groups of from two to *ix, with home-made instruments to make rhythm, they go from house to house caroling. In their aguinahfus (improvised carols) they ask for gifts in exchange for the blessing they ask to be brought upon the householder, along with the familiar story of the infant Jesus, the cradle at Bethlehem, and the shepherds and the three kings.

Santa isn't popular here. The children gather grass and put it in a box under their beds as food for the camels of the three kings (the three wise men) who come during the night and leave them gifts on JamiHry 6. At least this tale has some mention of the Bible story, while Santa Claus has not. But many are the sad little voices who ask, “Mama, why didn’t the kings stop at our house last night?”- for here poverty abounds.

If you were to come here on the anniversary of Christ's death you could attend His funeral. Yes, a real funeral. It starts from the church and ends there, as the dolls have to all be put back in their places when the sham is over. A statue of Chriat is carried in a coffin and one of Mary held high leading the mourn-era. Eerie, sorrowful music from a few instruments accompanies the procession and a warms of people follow. Little children arc heard to explain, "Murti Dios ' (“God died”). The whole interiors of the churches are draped in black; al) the saints are covered with black, also the altars; all 13 sorrow for the death of “God”, How can Jehovah be patient ho long!

A good lesson can be learned from the common funerals here. Instead of prolonging I he grief the corpse is buried the name day, or the following day if death took place in the evening, and then it is done simply, without clergyman, without the expense of embalming. The family and kind neighbors simply carry the dead to the cemetery, where one or several may speak a few words of the good deeds of the dead onfc and words of comfort, and thus he ii humbly put to rest without fuss, without a clergyman's straining himself in doleful tones to produce oven more tears. It is common to see a group of five or six people carrying a home-made casket decorated lovingly in crepe paper, I have seen one lout* man walking down the middle of the street (.carrying a tiny casket on his head. Of course, if you can pay for it you can have a funeral with pomp, hundreds of dollars* worth of flower?, police escort, an array of priests, and tufting of the church iieii at a certain price per toll. Puerta Rw&tfs are quickly adjusted to sorrows, with a "God’s will be done” attitude. To any plans or desires voiced are added the words St Dios quiere (if God wishes). Still, God is bargained with in their promesas f or promises.

AefifliacM Promise*

From somewhere out at the religions mate of the past come these promises. The Catholic Church docs not care to accept the credit for it, and even nonCatholies practice it. It is believed that God can be induced or softened into do

ing something for the good of the one promising or for the benefit of someone else if the promiser agrees to. endure a certain self-sacrificing or self-chastising. Many promises are made in-desperation as, “O God, don’t let me die of this sickness and I’ll wear a white promise dress for six months.” Any time on the street one will see many women in promise dresses with high necks, long sleeves and of solid colors, brown, white, or purple. The color of the dress and small yarn helt is according to the saint by which one chooses to swear. The hair should be plainly arranged, and no cosmetics used. What an admission of vanity this type of sacrifice!

…