Awake!, May 22, 1952
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UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION —A FADING PARCHMENT
Watchmen guard the original parchment while courts c estroy all it stands for
To Another World—by Microscope
Powerful lenses that stalk the invisible to answer ”What lies beyond I”
From Gods to Flags
Flag origin linked to religious veneration
The Monarch of the Skies
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
News sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital iesueA of our tlmetf must be unfettered by censorship and selfish Interests. “Awakef* has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish facts. It is not bound by political ambitions orobligattona; It Is unhampered by advertisers whose toes must not be trodden on; it Is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.
“Awake I” uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on all continents, in scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on-the - scenes reports come io 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, io 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.
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CONTENTS
Bible Truth—from God or Man?
United States Constitution—a Fading
Parchment
Brush Off Bill of Rights’ Petitions
Dissenters for Freedom
Would Paradise Kill the Race?
To Another World—by Microscope
Air Travel—Safe or Suicide?
One Picture Worth 10,000 Words?
Truth Makes Free in Barotscland
Religious Antics Steal the Show
From Gods to Flags
A Cinderella Story in Cactus
The Monarch of the Skies
Is It Genocide?
"Your Word Is Truth”
The Bible—Dispensable?
Court-Martial Discharges One of
Jehovah's Witnesses
Watching the World
Volume XXXIII Brooklyn, N, ¥„ May 22, 1952 Number W
BIBLE TRUTH—FROM GOD OR MAN?
CATHOLIC dignitaries, like the priest in Toledo, Ohio, quoted in the Toledo Blade on March 1,1943, are fond of saying: “The Catholic Church made the Bible; she has preserved it; and she interprets it.. . . The Catholic Church was able to do this only because of the aid of the Holy Ghost, of the Holy Ghost actively fulfilling the promise of infallibility that our Lord made to his church.”
Similar pious lip service is paid to the Book of books through functions like the Catholic-sponsored “Bible Week” in midFebruary this year. Yet the fact remains that many devout Catholics do not possess copies of the Bible, and those that do get little assistance in its study. However, they are generously supplied with reading matter by the prolific Catholic press in the form of newspapers, periodicals, etc.
An example is the widely read paper Out Sunday Visitor, which made the following statement in its issue of February 3, 1952: “Speaking about the creation of man, the Bible tells us that God formed Adam’s body 'out of the slime of the earth, and breathed into it an immortal soul*” [Italics ours] With Catholic claims in mind the Bible student asks in alarm, ‘What Bible have they preserved?* In the paper’s original text it pretended to quote directly from the Bible by setting off the quoted portion in double quotation marks (indicated in our reproduction by single marks).
The words the paper would like its readers to think appear in the Bible the way they have quoted them are found in part at Genesis 2:7,. But note how the following approved Catholic translations of the Bible render this text.
We find the Douay Version to read: “And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life; and man became a living soul” Msgr. Ronald Knox’s translation reads: “The Lord God formed man, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and made man a living soul” Says the translation of Genesis produced by the Catholic Confraternity of Christian Doctrine: “Then the Lord God . . . breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” [Italics ours]
Examine, too, these further texts dealing with the human soul:
At Isaias 53:12, the Douay Version reports: “He hath delivered his soul unto death and was reputed with the wicked.” Msgr. Knox gives Ecclesiastes 9:4-6 as follows: “Were but immortality the prize! But no . . . They live under sentence of death; and when death comes, of nothing will they be aware any longer; no reward can they receive, now that every trace of them has vanished away; no love, no hatred, no envy can they feel.” And at Ezekiel 18:4, Knox says: "It is the guilty soul that must die.” Then turn to the Christian
Greek Scriptures and the Catholic Confraternity’s version of Matthew 10:28: “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather be afraid of him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell?’ See too how this translation reads at Acts 3:23: “And it shall be that every soul that will not hearken to that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people?’ Yet somehow, from somewhere, Our Sunday Visitor insists that God breathed an immortal soul into the first man.
How then is an immortal soul ‘delivered unto death’? By what phenomenon is a deathless soul placed “under sentence of death”, left without a reward, or unable to feel love, hate, envy, etc,? Just how can an undying soul die, be destroyed in hell or “from among the people”? Please, how can these things be?
No, you are right. Black cannot be made white, the impossible rendered possible; not even to establish unscriptural, unreasonable and ungodly false religious doctrines. By inferring such a thing the sectarian paper above quoted deliberately seeks to suppress fundamental Bible truths. Any doubt of this vanishes when further in the same article the reader finds this passage: “Adam , . . had been told that if he remained faithful, none of his posterity would die, that all people would preserve the innocence in which they were created and, after living on this earth as long as God willed it, would be taken into a heavenly Paradise, where they would share all the glory of God’s own home?’ Will the Catholic press, Catholic readers or Catholic scholars go to their Catholic Bibles and produce any promise from God to Adam to this effect? To do so will require writing in the words they desire, just as they put them into their printed article.
Are these tactics considered an exercise of the alleged “infallibility” residing in the Catholic Church? Is such wholesale editing out of Bible truths and editing in of their false pagan doctrines what they mean by 'making the Bible, preserving it, interpreting it’? Nor is this practice new to papal Rome. An integral part of Catholic worship centers around the use of images. The second of the Ten Commandments specifically says: "Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, , .. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them?’ (Exodus 20:4,5, Douay) "Thou shalt not carve images or fashion the likehess of anything ... to bow down and worship it.” (Knofr) But though Catholics are woefully unacquainted with even their own Catholic translations of the Bible, they all have and read their catechisms. But in them they do not read the Second Commandment which has been completely eliminated and the Tenth Commandment dishonestly split in two in order to complete the regular number! See this for yourself in A Catechism of Christian Doctrine^ Revised Edition of the Baltimore Catechism, Nos. 1 and 2, copyrighted in 1941 by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. Mention is made of images in connection with the First Commandment, but the Scriptural prohibition is not quoted.
What do the Roman hierarchs fear, that they must censor out such vital instructions regarding pure worship? Do they realize that the Bible, freely read in Catholic hands, would topple their tottering creedal structure like a house of cards? Not preservers but perverters of the Bible have they been! Despite their egotistic claims, what a blessing it is that Bible truth was not left to the mercy of such conscienceless counterfeiters of inspired teaching. What conclusive proof that Jehovah God its author and not any human organization has preserved the Bible in its integrity and truth.
United States Constitution
A Fading Parchment
Much lip service Is offered In behalf of civil liberties. But recent developments affecting civil liberties have caused great concern to many and have given rise to these questions: Does the mind and spirit of man belong to the state Dr to the citizen? Does the state have the constitutional right to mold the thinking, choose the friends, limit the association, and dictate the private lives of its citizens? Are Its citizens free to work at the jobs they choose, free to speak their thoughts, free to print and write articles they desire, free to distribute pamphlets, free to endorse speeches made or articles written or acts performed by others? Are Its citizens free to criticize governmental policies, free to disagree with its administrative heads, free to offer suggestions and advocate new ideas and policies? This article offers an unbiased presentation of the facts regarding the
recent trend of the United
States Supreme Court and it* effect on civil liberties.
THE precious document of the United States Constitution is carefully guarded at Washington, D.C. Recently additional precaution was taken to preserve the aging document from the ravages of time. Amid, pomp and ceremony the yellowing parchment was gingerly tucked away in an airtight helium-filled case for preservation. While faithful moo stand guard to protect and preserve the fading parchment, the appointed guardians of the living Constitution—the Constitution in action—are slashing away at its liberties granted the people by the Constitution. Slowly antilibertarian attitudes are being read into the Constitution. In place of the supremacy of the individual the Supreme Court is beginning to substitute the theory of the supremacy of the legislative will. The lack of fire, spirit and faith in individual freedom, which are the basic ingredients of any real appreciation of the Bill of Rights, has weakened the high tribunal so that it is steadily becoming a less effectual and less important bulwark against the modern onslaught on freedom.
Since the deaths of Murphy and Rutledge in the summer of 1949, a swing away from civil liberties was started in a slow and somewhat subtle manner. Eugene Gressman, in his article “The Tragedy of the Court”, says that “there is not now a majority of five or more judges who have the personal background, the judicial character or the singular devotion to the cause of human freedom that are essential to the judicial protection and growth of freedom”. (New Republic, September 3, 1951) True, strong lip service to the cause of human freedom is voiced by the court, but inevitably follows an emphasis on the equally obvious proposition that “right to speak freely is not absolute”. As Chief Justice Vinson remarked recently, “The societal value of speech must on occasion be subordinated to the values and considera-tlbns.” In other words, the court is rejecting the idea that the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment—the rights of free speech, free assembly, free worship, and free press—are entitled to a preferred place in our framework of liberty. Out of the seventeen civil rights cases the court heard, Chief Justice Vinson voted for only three, while Justice Douglas voted for fifteen of the seventeen cases and Justice Black voted for fourteen. Where the heart is there will the decisions be also.
Brush Off Bill of Rights’ Petitions
The court’s decreased regard for the supremacy of the rights of the individual is mirrored in its summary rejection of constitutional claims via certiorari. During the last two terms (1949-50, 1950-51) about 85 per cent of the attempts to obtain certiorari failed. There were difficult cases, such as the Stuyvesant Town case where a Negro war veteran tried to rent an apartment there and was turned down because of his color. There was the Baltimore radio case. The trial judge fined the radio station for contempt of court because of its “obstruction of the administration of justice” for broadcasting an alleged confession by the defendant. The Court of Appeals of Maryland reversed the contempt order as an unconstitutional interference with freedom of speech and of the press. The U. S. Supreme Court would not hear this case despite its far-reaching effects. There was the Georgia case authorizing local movie censorship on the grounds that motion pictures are in no way entitled to freedom of the press. And there were other twisted, tough and unsettled civil rights issues that needed clarifying, but the court ducked its duty and stifled civil liberties by denying certiorari.
In the few Bill of Rights cases that it did consider, the court’s decisions reflected a further disregard for individual liberties.
The Dennis decision in substance says to Congress, You may make and enforce a law which sends persons to jail for the mere expression of political ideas, despite the most famous Constitutional guarantee that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech”. The Supreme Court took a wallop at freedom of speech in the Feiner case, which incidentally gives the police the “green light” to break up a meeting anywhere and be perfectly within the law. The federal loyalty program got a shot in the arm when the court split evenly, 4 to 4, in the Bailey case and thus automatically affirmed the lower court’s 2-to-l decision upholding the law involved. This law says in effect, Constitutional freedoms are not for everyone. For instance, government employees must choose between freedom of expression and freedom of employment. If you choose to freely express yourself, that most likely will mean you will be job hunting, if the Loyalty Board gets after you.
The Supreme Court again showed its colors in the Feinberg case. This law, upheld by the Supreme Court, March 3,1952, simply wipes out freedom of thought and conduct and membership for teachers. This law makes schoolteachers second-class citizens, denying them the full protection of Constitutional rights and guarantees. The statute supposedly is designed to keep Communists and other subversives out of the public school system. The basic tenet of the majority opinion was that the state had a constitutional right to preserve the integrity of the schools and to protect young minds of children in its public schools from subversive propaganda, subtle or otherwise, disseminated by those “to whom they look for guidance, authority and leadership”. Justice Minton, ruling for the majority, said: “That school authorities have the right and duty to screen the officials, teachers, and employes as to their
fitness to maintain the integrity of the schools as a part of ordered society, cannot be doubted. One’s associates, past and present, as well as one’s conduct, may properly be considered in determining fitness and loyalty?’—New York Times, March 4t 1952,
Dissenters for Freedom
Dissenting Justices Douglas and Black disagree with the court majority and condemn the law as against the Constitutional guarantees of “freedom of thought and expression to everyone in our society. All are entitled to it; and no one needs it more than the teacher”, said Justice Douglas, Justice Black sided in with Douglas and said:
“The importance of this holding prompts me to add these thoughts* This is another of those rapidly multiplying legislative enactments which make it dangerous—this time for schoolteachers—to think or say anything except what a transient majority happen to approve at the moment. Basically these laws rest on the belief that government should supervise and limit the flow of ideas into the minds of men. The tendency of such governmental policy is to mold people into a common intellectual pattern, Quite a different governmental policy rests on the belief that government should leave the mind and spirit of man absolutely free,
“Because of this policy public officials cannot be constitutionally vested with powers to select the ideas people can think about, censor the public views they can express, or choose the persons or groups people can associate with. Public officials with such powers are not public servants; they are public masters,”
This law not only punishes teachers for their thoughts and their associates, but restricts them as to what they can write, what they might distribute and what they might endorse. The state commissioner of education advised the teachers in a memorandum: “The writing of articles, the distribution of pamphlets, endorsement of speeches made or articles written or acts performed by others, al] may constitute subversive activity* Nor need such activity be confined to the classroom. Treasonable or subversive acts or statements outside the school are as much a basis for dismissal as are similar activities in school or in the presence of school children*”—New York Times, July 23, 1949,
Justice Douglas said the Feinberg law “turns the school system into a spying project * , * The principals become detectives; the students, the parents, the community become informers”. The teacher for fear will repress her thoughts. On the streets, on trains, at theaters, she will look in all directions befor^ speaking* Is this not typical of what happens in a police state?
Will truth and freedom ring from the housetops or will it be hid under a bushel of fear? Will the teacher feel free to speak out against the present administration and its policies, or against its trend toward socialism, or against its policies toward an oppressive fascist regime? or will fear of being labeled “disloyal” keep her gagged? What teacher in need of a job will be free to speak out against the NATO at this critical hour, or express her opinions regarding the war in Korea, and the waste and corruption in government without being tagged as “disloyal”? American democracy and freedom of thought have come to a deplorable new low in our schools when it is necessary for the state commissioner of education to warn that suggestions about possible improvement in the American form of government should not be considered disloyal.
The builders of the Constitution knew the strength that comes from a free mind, when ideas may be pursued wherever they lead, not cramped in because of fear. “We forget these teachings of the First Amendment when we sustain this law,” said Justice Douglas. He adds: “Of course the school systems of the country need not become cells for Communist activities; and the classrooms need not become forums for propagandizing the Marxist creed. But the guilt of the teacher should turn on overt acts. So long as she is a law-abiding citizen, so long as her performance within the public school system meets professional standards, her private life, her political philosophy, her social creed should not be the cause of reprisals against her.”
The great guarantees of individual liberty are beginning to show some of the corrosive effects of the passions and fears besetting our times. Those who have relied for long on the Constitution as the “Gibraltar of freedom” should take heed to what is happening to the living principles of the Constitution. Men might preserve the document, but in the words of the American Bar Association Journal: “Unless judges of the present generation reverse the recent trend, constitutions may become nothing but fading parchments.”
WOULD PARADISE KILL THE RACE?
WOULD the flawless blessings of paradise prove as destructive as atomic war? A “yes” answer seemed to be the point of an exhibit at the American Medical Association’s 100th annual gathering In Atlantic City, New Jersey, last June. Ups and downs, a generous sprinkling of hard times and reverses, seemed beneficial in the minds of Drs, R, R* Spencer and M. B* Melroy of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Spencer related the case of a population of one-celled paramecia that was blessed with every advantage a paramecium could ask for, plenty of food, fine temperature, complete absence of enemies, etc. What happened? We read:
"In eight years, the whole population of paramecia died out. This happened to six different strains of them. But paramecia that lived under normal troubles and windfalls are going strong, maybe because changes and challenges 'keep them on their toes’, Dr. Spencer said,”
Another experiment showed that bacteria exposed first to hot then normal temperatures continued to thrive* Individuals died but the race kept going strong, ’developing the ability to live in hotter temperatures,
Applying the lesson of the bugs to humanity, Dr, Spencer added: “As individuals, we yearn for peace, stability, security. But nature seems to imply that all that may not be good for the race. The conditions that are perfect for one Individual are not perfect for the race. . . * We must expect change. It is the primary law of the universe. Nothing stays the same. Until a man is able to realize that your death and mine are just as essential for progress as is his birth, he is no| mentally mature*”
But the Bible contradicts this conclusion based on the ideas of fallen man* In the first place, there would be nothing paradisaic about a workless world* There is no basis in fact for the idea that man’s Creator ever intended such a condition for humankind. Adam was fur* hi shed with constructive work which was essential in his role as caretaker of Eden.
"Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the domestic animals, and all the living things that crawl on the earth* * * . The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and look after it."—Genesis 1:28; 2:15, An Amer. Trans.
Neither need we fear that death and all the other attending evils draped over the race since Adam’s fall must remain forever as essential contributors to "progress”. There has been nothing progressive about man’s more than 5,900 years of degeneration since Elden. The Bible is true and Christ’s sacrifice will finally make possible death’s unconditional surrender* Death it refers to as not at all “progressive", but "the last enemy that shall be destroyed”.—! Corinthians ,15:26*
water life,. His accomplishments both paved the way for Robert Hooke’s compound microscope (having more than one simple lens) and made possible the epic research by Pasteur, Koch, Lister and others.
flnother 'World
-■. jb 7 JP53^ _ * . t
MICROSCOPE
XT
WITH the telescope man peers into limitless outer space and feels small. With the equally wonderful microscope he studies the indistinguishable world beneath, but he cannot feel big* What he still does not see keeps throwing up the challenge: “What lies beyond?” The story of the microscope is the story of man’s invasion of the world of the unseen to meet that challenge* He has taken many frontiers, but countless more remain. All this involves innumerable populations of which the natural eye alone can have no idea* Yet they are close about us, in fact on ust even in us!
Microscope is aptly taken from two Greek words meaning “tiny” and “a watcher”. Its origin, however, is not so clear* Layard's Nineveh excavations date a plano-convex lens of rock crystal found there from 721 to 705 B*C* Rome's tyrantemperor Nero is said to have used an emerald as an eye lens while watching his gladiators* Known improvements in microscopy continued to the seventeenth century when Anton van Leeuwenhoek ground his own lenses and made serious and enlightening discoveries among microscopic
Today’s compound laboratory-type microscope has some 300 parts and combines the highest mathematics and most deft skill. The “heart” of the instrument is its “optical train”. This includes a mirror usually of two reflecting surfaces, plane and concave* A condenser relays light from the mirror to a point just above the surface of the top lens. Objectives; or objective lenses^ seize and magnify the image of the object under study. Finally, oculars are lenses at the top of the microscope tube that further magnify the image and project it for the eye*
Particular needs have inspired specially equipped microscopes* The stereoscopic type is fitted with paired objectives that produce a third-dimension image. The science of metallurgy required a model for the study of opaque metals, for which transmitted light from beneath would be useless* A. metallurgical microscope in which the objective combines with a vertical illuminator providing light from above the specimen resulted. Crime detection agencies employ two metallurgical microscopes connected by a comparison eyepiece to examine bullet specimens* Guns are known to leave characteristic marks on bullets fired from them* Two bullets can thus be compared' to see if they were fired from the same weapon* And the polarizing microscope makes possible the study of specimens under polarized light This is important since the phenomenon of polarized light in vibrating in only one direction reacts in definite ways when passing through crystals, helping to identify them.
To Wonderland by Electrons
To be seen, an object must be large enough to reflect the light directed toward it. Hence, regular optical or light microscopes, as discussed to this point, can probe down only to the objects that are larger than half the length of normal light waves. In the face of this brick wall, Ernest Abbe, brilliant optician of the nineteenth century, who had thrown his life into microscopy, dourly faced the prospect of never seeing anything smaller than four-millionths of an inch. Had Abbe but lived in this century his tears could have been spared. Light of much shorter wave -length was sought. It was found in the electron, most elementary charge of negative electricity and component part of the atom, the wave nature of which was declared by Louis de Broglie in 1924,
Once turned to microscopy, this idea led to the field’s greatest step forward, the electron microscope. Only within’the last ten years or so has it approached true efficiency, but it has now definitely arrived. Since electrons are disturbed by the slightest interference of air with its nitrogen and oxygen molecules, the “works” had to be enclosed in a vacuum tube. At the top a filament generates the electrons, the flow of which must, of course, be focused. In accomplishing this, two types of electron microscopes were developed, the magnetic and the electrostatic, A series of magnetic coils through which the electrons pass set up a magnetic field to do the focusing in the first type. The second uses an electrostatic field, between two oppositely charged surfaces, filled with static or undischarged electricity.
Tfiis new weapon has push pH the invasion of the Little World to unbelievable limits. Former talk of magnification up to 3,000 times or so is now revised to around the 200,000 figure! A single hair made this large would hide three average American automobiles parked bumper to bumper. Microtomes, used to slice specimens to desired thinness for microscopy, previously went down to 1/25000 of an inch. But new specifications outdo this by ten times. Imagination of the world on which this probing eye is trained is quickened by Science News Letter, which said succinctly on July 5, 1947: "One single grain Of soil may well be more alive than a whole apartment house full of tenants—there are many times more individual organisms on it.” But confidence in the electronic “eye” is furnished by Dr. Ralph W. G. Wyckoff of the National Institute of Health, who declared that by the close of 1950 the electron microscope had already opened up a world as plentiful as all that had been till then uncovered by optical microscopes. Indeed, the new eye loomed as a “magic mirror” ready to lead scientific “Alices” into a wonderland dwarfing that of the storybook.
Electronic Eyes in “War” and “Peace”
What is to be dreaded so much as an unseen enemy, fully armed and bent only on destroying! Just that is the case with the viruses that attack your body’s cells, which, by their infinitesimal size, get inside, multiply and destroy their objective from within. On this very vital warfront with mankind’s invisible enemies, the electron microscope proves a most timely recruit. In his book Seeing the Invisible— The Story of the Electron Microscope, Gessner G. Hawley likens old efforts to see the influenza virus to trying to pick up a needle with a steam shovel. The light waves were simply too coarse for the job. Now, however, this deadly foe has been
seen at last. Furthermore, pictures have actually been taken by means of the electron microscope catching viruses in the very act of destroying a cell. On the cancer front elementary research is in progress through study of progressive growth of plant viruses. Factors encouraging and those that slow up cancerous conditions are closely watched. Nor has the villainous insect air force been overlooked. Rigid scrutiny of insect anatomies has proceeded in efforts to find ever more effective insecticides.
But “peace time” uses are abundant too. Electron microscopes are telling more about our nerve make-up, though the method of transmitting nerve messages remains a mystery. An industrial riddle has long asked why some costly tools fail in a relatively short time and others wear well. The “supereye” has been turned on the tiny metallic particles involved, in search of an answer. Nor is it likely to miss much of significance. A new razor blade appeared perfectly smooth when magnified but 315 times. But when enlarged 5,000 times under the electron microscope, a great, glaring gash appeared on the edge. Similarly are dust particles in the air quickly identified, and dangerous ones indicated; wood pulp fiber structures are studied for the paper industry; adhering ability of dyes for textile manufacturers and the suitability of soils for certain crops because the quantity and type of clay te revealed.
However, we are not to conclude that the electron microscope has obsoleted other types. Among its disadvantages are its size, cost and vacuum tube, which prevents specimens from being studied under their natural conditions. Within their range the old optical microscopes are entirely satisfactory, except for the most exacting research. Furthermore, ever restless scientists still want some features the electron variety has not supplied.
fFftaf Will the Future Bring?
For long, scientists have been anxious to dlscem more about the chemical composition of substances studied for which an X-ray microscope would be required. Such a product would reveal internal details of objects through which light cannot pass. Perfection of an X-ray microscope long remained doubtful, since there was no known way of reflecting or diffracting such rays. However, more than two years ago a spokesman for General Electric Research Laboratories announced satisfactory early performances by such an instrument that accomplished the reflection by a pair of curved mirrors.
Nor is this all! Earlier still, in the spring of 1949, announcement was made in an atomic science journal that Claude Mag-nan, of the laboratory of atomic and molecular physics, College of France, Paris, had described a “hydrogen eye” microscope. The instrument was attributed with the fabulous strength of being able to magnify to 600,000 times. Single protons from hydrogen atoms would be used to supply the ray, their wave length being shorter than others.
However, time and substantial trial will have to prove a suitable successor before the well-established electron microscope is shunted to a secondary role. Rumors of always newer, improved “supereyes” serve mostly to but reveal the restless human desire to get on with the probe of the unseen. But at every advance, not real satisfaction, only further curiosity waits. In closing his fine book cited earlier, Mr. Hawley embraced this attitude in his summary: “Highly useful as the electron microscope is and will be in the years to come ... it is only one of the many means by which the truth is being sought. And when scientists have exploited its powers to the utmost, they will still be asking themselves what lies beyond.”
AIR TRAVEL—Safe or Suicide?
RECENT air crashes give rise to questions regarding air safety and air supremacy, Is it safe to fly? What are the average passenger fatalities? What do the facts show? From December 16, 1951, to February 11,1952, less than two months, at least five major aircraft disasters have been reported in the nation. Three of these crashes took place in the city of Elizabeth, New Jersey, within an area of less than a square mile.
C Despite these unfortunate catastrophes, statistics show air travel is still the fastest and the safest way of getting there. During 1950 there were twenty-nine major airplane disasters In the world, and close to a thousand persons lost their lives in these crashes. The United States domestic scheduled services maintained their high safety record with only four fatal accidents, the same number as in 1949. The major aircraft disasters in 1950 in America took a total of . more than 167 lives. Notwithstanding, mile for mile the airplane was far ahead in safety of every other mode of transportation. On the basis of passenger fatalities this was a rate of 1.2 per 100,000,000 passenger miles flown in domestic service, to compare with 1.3 for 1949. This represents less than one and one-half fatalities for every four thousand times around the earth!
® Compare these figures with automobile accidents and fatalities during 1949 and 1950, There were over 14,350,000 car accidents in the United Statea during 1949, in which 37,000 lost their lives. (1951 World Almanac) More than 545 lives were lost during the 1950 three-day Christmas holiday. This represents a loss of life almost five times as great as that lost In aircraft disasters during the whole year in the United States and about half the number for the entire world. Car accidents accounted for 491 deaths on Independence Day, whereas all the major aircraft disasters from January 27, 1950, to July 27, 1950, did not equal that number. Almost twice as many persons died during the five holiday week ends, New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, as those who died in aircraft disasters throughout the world during the same year, {Britan’ nica Book o/ the Year, 1951) The final toll of fatalities for 1951 due to automobile accidents shows an increase of eight per cent over the previous year. The automobile is still public enemy No. 1,
C Statistics used by the Civil Aeronautics Administration for 1951 show a record of an estimated 22,960,000 passengers transported for a total of 10,666,000,000 passenger miles; the domestic scheduled carriers recorded L4 passenger fatalities per 100,000,000 passenger miles for the year. International scheduled airlines experienced a marked decrease in fatalities. They reported 1.2 passenger fatalities per 100,000,000 passenger miles, to compare with 2.1 last year. Combined, domestic and international lines exactly equaled their record of last year with an estimated 1.3 passenger fatalities per 100,000,000 passenger miles. This safety must be recognized in the light of the tremendous growth in commercial aviation over all previous years. An estimated 22,960,000 passengers were carried domestically; and 2,037,000, internationally. This represented a gain of 32 per cent on domestic lines, and a gain of 22 percent on Internationa al lines.
Preliminary reports of air-travel business for the month of January 1952 show almost every scheduled line ahead of last year. Trans World Airlines announced its passenger business was 12 per cent greater the first month of this year than last year. Eastern Air Lines also reports heavier traffic than 1951. Air travel today is cheaper, faster, and by far safer than it has been in the history of commercial aviation. Despite the few disasters, facts show that when going somewhere you are much safer in the air than on the ground.
One 2OortA JO, OQO fyfords?
Kindergarten children in Phelps, New York* were having no end of trouble with getting the wrong buses until the Board of Education came to the rescue and painted animal pictures on the vehicles. The five-year-olds could easily remember whether they went home on the "rabbit”, “chicken” or “bear” bus.
GFruth Makes Free in *BArl<pTSEbAND
By “Awake!" correspond mt In Northern Rhodesia
SETTLE back in your armchair. Gaze into the embers and try to imagine the scene. This is Central Africa, Northern Rhodesia in particular at Mongu-Lealui, the seat of the Paramount Chief of the Barotse people.
Come with me now in the direction of the smoke clouds and toward that merry chatter that we hear. These signs are your first introduction to an assembly of Jehovah's witnesses. Perhaps you have attended an assembly of these Christian people in your own town or country, but the chances are small that you have been invifed to a location such as this. Walking is hard in this sand, and these flies are a pest. You had better carry this flyswitch made from the tail of a wildebeest.
Now that we are nearer to the assembly, do you see this orderly arrangement of wood and dried-grass huts? Each one provides sleeping quarters for a man and his wifb and children. These larger grass “tents" you see are communal dwellings, where many men stay together or many women share quarters. Some 900 people from the Chokwe, Luchazi, Lozi and Mbunda tribes are accommodated in the camp, witnesses from all over this area from ten different congregations. Reminds one of the camp arrangement in Israel, does it not? Over there on your left, where you can see the sacks of maize meal and the bundles of dried fish, is the cafeteria department. This hut behind us is the first-aid station. Antiseptic for cut feet and hands, aspirin or its equivalent for headaches, and preparations for coughs and common colds are available.
An arena about thirty by forty yards in area provides the “auditorium". No seats? True, but notice how carefully this area has been strewn with sheaves of grass to meet your comfort. Because the arena is situated on a fairly steep incline the platform has been fixed at the lower end, to give an amphitheater effect so that all can see what is going on. The raised mound of sand for the platform is tastefully canopied by leafed branches and sheaves of grass. Do you observe the small pile of neatly cut short sticks at each entrance? This is to enable a count to be taken of the audience. As each one enters, he removes a stick from the pile and drops it on another heap, which is afterward carefully counted.
An Eye for Dressing
No, that is not a woman you point to, but a man dressed in the traditional outfit of the Lozi tribe. The dress is called siziba. It is made by gathering five or six yards of cloth and suspending it from a belt to hang from the waist down to the knees in front. Then seven or eight yards of this same material is suspended behind, having the appearance of a skirt divided on each side. Between the loins a strip of the same material is gathered. That is how the men dress to welcome their king, the paramount chief. Some sizibas involve as much as thirty yards of cloth. These, however, are only for show, as the wearer cannot possibly walk comfortably with such a burden. That is his wife standing beside him. She te wearing tire towisi. Very emart, too! The skirt is made from eight, nine, ten or even twelve yards of gaily patterned cloth gathered together and pleated like a kilt behind, but hanging slightly lower than the plain front of the dress. These Lozi women swing it very smartly. The larger the flare behind, the greater their wealth.
Over there are some new arrivals. Watch them greet their friends, first two or three rhythmic claps of the hands and now one takes his friend’s hand in his right one and kisses the palm, men to men, women to women, men to women, etc.
What was that? You did not fancy that fellow’s smile? You must get accustomed to it. He is one of the Chokwe tribe who file all their teeth to a sharp point, and a very painful process it must be. They do it when the child is about fourteen years of age by getting him to bite on a stick while another chisels his teeth with a sharp instrument. The Chokwe do this because the elders of the tribe have taught that while a person is sleeping his teeth will leave his mouth and go to eat the waste excrement unless he has them filed. Hence the rush on teeth filers. The Lozi tribe files only the two front teeth. However, children of Jehovah’s witnesses are no longer affected by this superstition, because their parents have learned Bible truths, and this has freed their minds from such cruel, pagan practices of disfigurement.
Truth Frees from False Religion
Ancestor worship, or the belief in the "immortal soul” or "spirit” of the dead ones living on after a mere physical death of the body is the basis for all the superstitions of these tribes. Of course, the religions of Christendom have sent their missionaries out here with the same ideas about immortal souls and hells of torments and purgatories, and so the superstitions continue in the minds of their converts. But Jehovah’s witnesses have brought pure Bible truth to these people and it is amazing to see how they have been freed from bondage to Superstition and witchcraft. Because they lay aside and refuse to practice traditional customs, they are scoffed at and ridiculed and often ostracized by other persons of the tribe. But they know that God’s Word teaches that the soul dies and that the dead know nothing and can do nothing to the living, and so they have learned to hope in the ransom sacrifice of Christ Jesus to give them life under God’s kingdom, even by resurrection if necessary. (Ezekiel 18:4; Ecclesiastes 9:5,10; John 5:28,29) It has meant much for these people to lay aside their deep-rooted demon religion; but the power of the truth of God’s Word is stronger than the traditions of men, and it makes them free indeed.—John 8:32.
People of the Lubale, Chokwe, Luchazi and Lozi tribes are taught to fear the dead. When a man dies leaving a living wife, or a wife dies leaving a husband, the people of the Village will strip the clothes from the living partner and dress him in old dirty tatters. This is done in order to deceive the spirit of the dead one, making the living partner appear as a "stranger and man of the forest”. Thus the spirit of the dead will not enter into the living partner and bring him to grief and trouble in his remaining lifetime. These tribes are taught by their elders that the one who buries the dead person must wash all the children in the village with a specially prepared lotion made from roots and herbs. This, they say, will prevent the spirit of the dead person from troubling them.
When a person is believed to be incurably ill, people of the Chokwe, Lubale and Luchazi tribes will leave the sick one alone in his hut and give the place a wide berth. When they observe from a distance that the sick one has died (little wonder, since he is left without attention!), they close the door of his hut and make it fast with poles and leave the corpse for a day, fearing that the death of that one will pass upon the remaining villagers. Should three persons die in quick succession, the whole village Mali evacuate, as this is supposed to be a sign that the spirits of the dead are bringing trouble to that place.
Influence on Youth Training
Young girls of the Lozi tribe have quite a trialsome time when reaching puberty. Village girls approaching this stage in life are separated from the other villagers and made to stay in roughly ipade booths of leafed branches. Their normal clothing is taken from them and they are made to wear only loin cloths of a very rough material. They are ostracized from village life for three months. Should they unwittingly find themselves in someone's path, they must greet the person only by clapping their hands together and bowing the head low as in shame. They are not permitted to wash or cut their hair, and soon become quite wild in appearance. Fellow villagers administer beatings to these girls from time to time, twisting their ears and attacking them in other painful ways. Should visitors come to the village during this period, they too may share in the chastisement. And so this unhappy life continues for the girls for three months without relief. Young boys of the Lubale, Luchazi and Chokwe tribes go through similar trials at the age of six or seven years, when they are put aside in a fenced yard for circumcision.
Native Jehovah’s witnesses, however, have learned to love their children. From their Bible studies they have learned that circumcision or uncircumcision in the flesh means nothing, but the circumcision of the heart is the important thing with Christians. They teach their children Bible truth and spend their time bringing them up in the discipline and authoritative advice of Jehovah to be ministers of God. So they have ceased from these tribal practices.
Turning in the Report
Counting by figures is a great trial to these people, as most of them, especially of the older generation, have had no opportunity' of schooling. They know, however, that it is proper to make a report of the work they accomplish in preaching to others concerning God’s kingdom and that such reporting assists the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society to compile a Yearbook showing the advance of the Lord’s work all over the earth. So they must count the hours spent in preaching by the movement of the sun, and in this they can be amazingly accurate. At the end of the week or month they bring to the one in charge of the congregation two small bags containing neatly cut sticks. Bag number one is the number of return visits they have made on persons of good will, and bag number two is the number of Bible studies they have conducted, each represented by a stick. The more capable ones in the congregation are thus able to compile a fairly accurate report of the work accomplished and to send a record to the branch office.
It appears that a session of the assembly is about to commence. At the sound of that whistle all are coming from their booths to the central arena. There they are, depositing their sticks at the entrance, thus registering their attendance. All the children are ushered to the front of the platform, then all the women behind and the men at the rear. It is very orderly. But you do not understand the language of the Lozi or Chokwe, so let us make our way out quietly, leaving these people to learn more truth from God’s Word, that they may continue to enjoy true freedom in Barotseland.
Religious Airties Steal the Show
the Well-dressed Dog”
Under this catchy heading, an ad in Holly-•wood Bowl magazine in August, 1951, made the following appeal: "Give your 'best friend’ a smart St. Ftecco medal. This patron saint of all dogdom will keep your pooch happy and make him the envy of every cat in the neighborhood.”
Anxious prospective buyers were next informed that they could secure the canine trinkets in 14-carat gold for $30.00, and with a heavy 14-farat gold chain to match for $42.00. They were also available in sterling at $7.20, with chains starting from the same figure. Then the following history of the dog patron was given: "During the pestilence in Italy many years ago, a physician named Rocco was banished from a small village after he contracted the dreaded disease. Lying on the countryside, he was befriended by a strange dog who stole a loaf of bread from his master and brought it to him. The dog returned daily with succor until Rocco recovered. He was so grateful that he devoted his life to dogs and was later canonized 'Saint Rocco* . . . patron of dogs.”
^Logical? No comment. But, by the same "reasoning”, the dog could probably have been canonized as the patron of all doctors who are banished for contracting a dreaded disease.
Can You Top This—for Silliness?
<£Some silly antics have been concocted in the name of religion. But passing time seems to try the imagination with ever more and more fantastic approaches. A British paper of December 12, 1949, carried a picture of a group of small children kneeling in prayer in church, with their dolls behind them. The caption noted that 199 girls and one small boy attended the special service, and added: "One by one they filed past the vicar, the Rev. Alban Johnson, as he stood on the altar steps. In one hand he held holy water, in the other a bunch of leaves. He bent down to each child In turn, asked the name of the doll, and blessed it. Four-year-old Roy Cuff was the
■ only small boy. He carried a large china doll. 11 Ttrs not mine/ he explained loudly. ‘I’m hav-!j Ing it blessed for my sister/”
elusive "Corpse” Livens Up Revival j! ^A Maryland revivalist, "Rev.” William ’J Davis, 41, wanted to close a week-long revival ij campaign with a flourish. An anonymous vol-5 unteer thought he knew just how to do it. He ;J would submit to being placed in a pine coffin, । J lowered into a deep grave within the revival ;« tent, covered over, then be raised "by the '! spirits” before the crowd's startled gaze. To I; be sure the “spirits” would not have too diffi-;• cult a task, a tunnel would connect the grave JI with an exit at the rear of the tent and the i% coffin would have a trap door.
([Toa packed house, the coffin was lowered into the grave without incident. But before the "resurrection” could take place, an outside curiosity seeker spotted the "corpse" leaving by the rear exit. By the time order was restored, the Washington, D.C., Times-Herald reported on August 4, 1951: "^00 indignant folks had smashed the tent poles, torn Ji the canvas to shreds, broken up the chairs •J and were preparing to vent their wrath on the !j revivalist.” Davis and his assistant, Letha Ji Glivings, both Negroes, landed in the Hyatts-J J ville, Maryland, jail. The "corpse” had dis-'f played extraordinary presence of mind, and Ji escaped while the tent was coining down.
JI Japanese Let Dead Pay Own Way j J <^The Japanese have apparently never been <J won over entirely to the idea of expensive Ji masses for the dead, made so popular by Ji Rome. Rather than suffer such later expense । J and trust in the efficacy of such practices to Ji secure a satisfactory haven for their dead, JI they choose to take precautions ahead of ■J time. A "Believe It or Not” item of April 24, ;« 1951, explains it this way, under the heading, j! "The Heavenly Passport”: “Japanese bury ।J their dead in a shirt inscribed with their vir-J1 tues and attach a bag containing a coin tp J pay for transportation of the soul.”
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, that 1 will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah.—Amos ,8:11, Am. Stan. Ver.
THE Bible reveals Jehovah God as the Almighty, the Eternal, and the Creator of all things. (Revelation 4:8, H) To the extent that we appreciate what that means—to be the Origin, Source and Maker of the immense, yes, boundless universe— to that extent we will appreciate the futility of trying to picture him in any form or shape. Most fittingly, therefore, Jehovah God commanded Moses to tell the children of Israel: “Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of form on the day*that Jehovah spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire; lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image in the form of any figure.”—Deuteronomy 4:15,16, Am. Stan. Ver.
When Moses asked to see the glory of Jehovah, he was told: “You may not see my face, . . . for man cannot see me, and live.” (Exodus 33:20, An Amer. Trans.) The apostle John bore testimony to the same fact, saying, “No man hath seen God at any time.” (John 1:18) And repeatedly the apostle Paul assures us that, as far as human creatures are concerned, God is invisible.—Romans 1:20; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:27.
How did it come about that men began to worship images? The Bible tells us:
“Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God nor did they thank him, but they became empty-headed in their reasonings and their unintelligent heart became darkened. Although asserting they were wise, they became foolish and turned the glory of the incorruptible God into something like the image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed creatures and creeping things.” They “exchanged the truth of God for the lie and venerated and rendered sacred service to the creation rather than the One who created, who is blessed forever. Amen”. —Romans 1:21-25, New World Trans.
Concerning such creature worship the psalmist well observes: “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; they have bands, but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not; . . . They that make them shall be like unto them; yea, every one that trusteth in them.”—Psalm 115:4-8, Am. Stan. Ver.
In ancient times idols were carried into battle by those that worshiped them. As if the idols could help win a battle when they could not even walk! This is apparent
M4Y £2, 1952
from the account concerning David and the Philistines, appearing at 2 Samuel 5:20,21, An American Translation, “So David came to Baabperazim, and David defeated them there; . . . Moreover they left their gods there, and David and his men carried them away.”
Origin of Fluffs
Also replicas, representations or pictures were made of their gods, placed on the end of sticks and taken into battle as standards. Says McClintock & Strong’s Cyclopaedia on this subject: "Egyptian standards consisted of the figure of an animal at the end of a spear. Among Egyptian sculptures and paintings there also appear other standards, . . . Among the ancient Assyrians standards were in regular use, chiefly of two kinds—one a pole with a ball and a flag at the top; the other having the figure of a person, probably a divinity, standing over one or two bulls and drawing a bow. . . . Greek nations also displayed the effigies of their tutelary gods, or their particular symbols, at the end of a spear.”
Gradually the images on the poles became flags; the religious veneration of them, however, continued. Note the testimony of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, eleventh edition, of 1910, volume 10, on this point: “The Roman standards were guarded with religious veneration in the temples at Rome; and the reverence of this people for their ensigns was in proportion to their superiority to other nations in all that tends to success in war. It was not unusual for a general to order a standard to be cast into the ranks of the enemy, to add zeal to the onset of his soldiers by exciting them to recover what to them was perhaps the most sacred thing the earth possessed. The Roman soldier swore by his ensign.”
Continuing in the same vein, this authority farther on states: "Early flags were almost purely of a religious character. . ,.
The national banner of England for cen-furies—the red cross of St, George—was a religious one; in fact the aid of religion seems ever to have been sought to give sanctity to national flags, and the origin of many can be traced to a sacred banner, as is notably the case with the orlflamme of France and the Dannebrog of Denmark.”
On this subject of Roman worship of military standards the second-century Ter-tullian in his Apologeticus, chapter 16, page 162, states that the entire religion of the Roman camp almost consisted in worshiping the ensigns, in swearing by the ensigns, and in preferring the ensigns before all other gods. And Josephus, in his Wars of the Jews, Book 6, chapter 6, tells that after the Roman soldiers had set fire to the temple of Jerusalem on the tenth day of the fifth month of A.D, 70, they “brought their ensigns to the temple, and set them over against its eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices to them; and there did they make Titus imperator, with the greatest acclamations of joy”.
As to how the Jews felt about these military ensigns, note the following historical incident: When Pilate transferred the headquarters of his army from Caesarea to Jerusalem, his soldiers brought with them their military standards bearing the image of the emperor. Cautiously the soldiers brought these standards into the city at night. Discovering them in the morning, the Jews became so enraged that they streamed down to Pilate in Caesarea. They would rather die than give in to such idolatrous encroachment upon their sacred realm of worship. Pilate yielded and ordered the offending standards to be cleared out of Jerusalem and returned to Caesarea.
Modern Usage
The attaching of a religious significance to the flag has continued down to this day. Says the Encyclopedia Americana, Vol. 11, page 316, on the subject: “The flag, like the cross, is sacred. Many people employ the words or term ‘Etiquette of the Flag'. This expression is too weak, too superficial and smacks of drawing-room politeness. The rules and regulations relative to human attitude toward national standards use strong, expressive words; as ‘Service to the Flag1, ‘Respect for the Flag*, ‘Reverence for the Flag’, ‘Devotion to the Flag*?’ And in respect to salutes we are told, “Placing tl)e hat above the heart or hand on the left breast is also esteemed reverential?*
In this connection it is of interest to note how the American flag came to be known as “Old Glory**. “In ancient times it was the custom, on the eve of a sea voyage, to furl the banner as a triangle. The priests could then dedicate the flag to God, the Father; God, the Son; and God, the Holy Ghost. On the pronouncement of this dedication each corner would be raised, and all hands would shout, Glory, Glory, Glory!” It was during the re-enactment of such a “Holy Trinity of the Sea”, by a Captain William Driver, back in 1831, that the American flag was first termed “Old Glory”.—Coronet, November, 1951.
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