Awake!, June 22, 1952

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WE ARE NO ACCIDENT!

Earth’s unique features declare we did not ’’just happen”

Cuba’s Quick Change in Government

'Here today; gone tomorrow’—uncertain life of Caribbean republic

Why Christians Shun Gambling

Because it is heathen, unscriptural and crooked

Starlings Stump the Experts

Prime pest of birddom laughs off attempts to still him

TUNE 22. 1952 semimonthly

THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL

News sources that are able to keep you awake io the vital hsues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. ‘Awake 1” has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, Is free to publish facts. It Is not bound by political ambitions or obligations; it is unhampered by advertisers whose toes must not be trodden on; ills unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps Itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.

° Awake I” uses the regular news channels, but Is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on all continents, in scores of nations. From the four comers of the earth their 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 coverage is as broad as the earth and as high as the heavens.

“Awake 1” pledges Itself to righteous principles, to exposing hidden foes and subtle dangers, to championing freedom for all, to comforting mourners and strengthening those disheartened by the failures of a delinquent world, reflecting sure hope for the establishment of a righteous New World.

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CONTENTS

What Real Missionaries Are Like

We Are No Accident.'

Other Planets Offer

No “Home Sweet Home”

The Earth, the Planet of Life

Cuba's Quick Change in Government

Quiet Revolution

The Balanced Congressman

“The Shape of Things to Come”

Why Christiane Shun Gambling

Do Scriptures Support Gambling?

Bolivia’s Popular Revolution

“Overseas Wit”

Religious News Items

Starlings Stump the Experts

i Draft Act Narrows Definition of Minister 24 “Your Word Is Truth"

Three Gods or One God—What Say

the Scriptures?

Jehovah’s Witnesses Preach in

All the Earth—Jamaica

Watching the World

AWAKE./

“Now it is high time to awake."—Romans 13:11 &

Volume XXX1H Brooklyn, N, Y», Juno 22, 1952 Number 12

What Real Missionaries Are Like

By “Awake[” correspondent in Puerto Rico

During the week end following |rn |1 April 11, newspaper readers throughout the United States ■MUM and many other countries of the world looked at pictures of a pleasant-looking young man, his pretty wife, and a little two-year-old boy. Accompanying the pictures was an article telling of an air disaster in which 52 persons lost their lives when a four-motored PanAmerican plane was forced down into the ocean a few miles out from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The little boy was Mark Van Daalen, one of the 17 survivors of the disaster. His parents, Leo and Eunice Van Daalen, were drowned. Only a few of the many newspapers mentioned the fact that they were missionaries, and fewer still that they were Jehovah’s witnesses.

Among the members of the first class to be graduated from the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead, Leo and Eunice, together with Leo’s brother Emil and cousin Donald, flew to the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico in March 1944 to take up missionary work there. Only six persons were active as Jehovah’s witnesses in Puerto Rico at the time they arrived. The group of four found a place to live and then went to work. No, they didn’t try to build up a following by making “rice Christians” out of the Puerto Rican people—offering them free meals or other material benefits. Instead they worked hard at learning the Spanish language and dally went out from their home into the hot tropical sun, spending the day going from house to house enlightening the people with the comforting truths of God’s Word, the Bible. They gave the people food, all right, but spiritual food of greater value and more strengthening than their hearers had ever received. Evenings were spent conducting home Bible studies with the many truth-hungry persons. Only five such studies were being conducted when they arrived in March. July saw 122 in progress.

More missionaries joined them later and the work of announcing God’s established Kingdom was extended to other towns. But these four had the joy of being in at the start of a grand expansion which was to see the half-dozen publishers of 1944 increase to 622 active witnesses for Jehovah by November 1951.

In January 1950, after having served for six years as a missionary, Eunice gave birth to a baby boy, Mark. To better carry out their new responsibility as parents, Leo and Eunice moved from the Santurce missionary home to their own home tn nearby Puerto Nuevo. Leo took on parttime secular work but continued spending some 100 hours a month in ministerial work. Eunice was soon active again, and the month before the trip expressed her joy at having spent 30 hours in house-to-

house witnessing, and Bible-study work. Perhaps soon she could be a full-time missionary again! The night before they were to leave for the United States to visit their parents, the congregation in Puerto Nuevo celebrated the Memorial of Christ's death (April 10), and some 90 persons attended (1,038 throughout the entire island). Leo and Eunice were very happy.

Next day, Friday, April 11, they took off with their little boy for the flight to New York, but ten minutes later their plane was in the water and within three minutes sank. Leo and Eunice, evidently calm, succeeded in getting out of the plane before it went under. Eunice, an excellent swimmer/ gave her life preserver to a woman who was trying to swim with a child in her arms. High waves evidently proved too much for them and both drowned before rescue craft arrived, Leo, according to witnesses, throwing little Mark from him before sinking. The little boy was seen floating in the water by a survivor, was tossed into a life raft, given artificial respiration and 'lived.

Newspapers, especially local ones, gave much publicity to the pair and their orphaned son and one wrote an editorial praising Eunice in glowing phrase for her act of unselfishness in giving up her life preserver. But they pretty well bypassed Leo and Eunice’s eight years of unselfish labor in bringing to the Puerto Rican people the comfort and hope of God’s new world in which'death and sorrow and suffering will pass away. Where the newspapers failed, others did not At the funeral services the following Monday some 370 persons came to hear a comforting talk which gave praise to Jehovah God for his loving and merciful provision of the resurrection. Literally scores of those present had come to a knowledge of the truth of God’s Word due, at least in part, to Leo and Eunice’s work. On every hand were heard expressions of determination to ‘work yet harder so that we can attain to the new world along with them'; To be there when they stand up to life and happy reunion with their loved ones in an earth cleansed of wickedness.’ New ones present spoke their amazement at the freedom from distress and the quiet assurance so evident among the members of the deceased ones’ family. They realized that the sectarian religions in their island had never given them any foundation for such a firm faith in God’s power to restore the dead to life in a new world of peace.

Since then the little company at Puerto Nuevo has reached a new peak in active publishers, and throughout the whole island the missionaries excitedly tell of greatly increased interest on the part of the people in the work of Jehovah’s witnesses. And, for all who knew and loved Leo and Eunice, Jehovah’s promise of a resurrection for faithful servants becomes that much sweeter and more precious. How wonderful to know that a new world is at the doors!

God is not unrighteous so os to forget your work and the love you showed for his name, in that you have ministered to the holy ones and continue ministering.

But we desire each one of you to show the same industriousness so as to have the full assurance of the hope down to the end, in order that you may not become sluggish, but be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises .--Hebrews 6:10-12, New World Trans.

verse is very scientific. H. Spencer Jones, since 1933 Britain’s Astronomer Royal, does not think it an accident In his book Life on Other Worlds he remarks: "The solar system has certainly not come into existence as the result of chance. It is not an accidental collection of bodies: there are too many regularities in the system?’

The cumulative effect of some of these regularities is awesome. He points out that all the planets, including the many little asteroids, re

WRITE the number six and after it place twenty-one zeros. This reads six sextillion, the number of miles into outer space that our most powerful telescope has probed. This is a billion light* years, meaning that light traveling at its rate of 186,000 miles per second requires one billion years to flash from that point to the earth* In all that vast scope universal law and order over and over again keep confronting the trained and prying eye of science. Our earth, its eight companion planets and the host of asteroids between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter swing in their respective pathways about the sun. This is our solar system, which itself moves along, pulled by the sun in one comer of the great Milky Way galaxy, our "island universe”. In turn this entire “island” in the sky moves round its central axis, which is apparently in the vicinity of the constellation Sagittarius. One complete cycle for this whole galactic system requires some 225,000,000 years. Beyond our galaxy are countless others, all guided by harmonious law, none tolerating chaos. As far as our most highly magnified sight has carried us this holds true, giving no reason to doubt that it is just as true in the endless reaches still farther out.

Some call all this a great “accident”. But science is not an accidental art and the univolve around the sun in the same direction, their orbits lying in nearly the same plane. The inclinations of the planes of the other planets’ orbits to the ecliptic, the plane of the orbit of the earth, are for the most part but a few degrees. The sun rotates in the same direction as the revolutions of the planets and the planets’ orbits lie almost in the plane of the sun’s equator. Also, the planets rotate in the same direction as the sun. With few exceptions the orbits of the satellite bodies are found to be nearly circular and lie virtually- in the plane of the parent planet’s equator; and the majority of satellites revolve around their parents in the same direction in which the planets themselves rotate, Then Mr. Jones summarizes, saying:

"We may compare the solar system with a pack of cards as it comes from the makers, in which the cards are arranged in suits and each suit in order of value, rather than with a pack which has been used and shuffled. The regularities demand an explanation, but to find an explanation of how a system such as the solar system could have come into being has proved to be the most difficult of all the problems of cosmogony.”

But, of course, there are theories concerning the birth of our solar system. Some think a star once collided with our sun to

form the resulting necklace of surrounding planets. Perhaps more believe a star simply passed near enough to the sun to cause a mighty tide of matter to be ejected and ball up into planetary bodies. Though not necessarily denying these ideas, Jones states: “The chance that two stars will actually collide was computed by Sir James Jeans. He found that a given star will be likely to meet with an actual collision only once in 600,000 million million (6 x 1017) years. The chance of two stars' approaching each other sufficiently close, without an actual collision, to give rise to the ejection of a tidal filament is somewhat, but not much, greater.’’ Nor do we here take issue with the precise way in which the solar system was brought forth, but only with the conclusion that it came by chance. Further, note that even if a heavenly accident had produced the form of the planets, still more and more like “accidents” are needed to account for their harmony of action. Jones concludes: “Our solar system appears, therefore, to be a system that is nearly, though perhaps not quite, unique in our stellar universe.”

Other Planets Offer No

“Home Sweet Home”

When one next looks for areas in which life as we know it can exist the eligible zone shrinks to a pin point around planet earth. The moon is a mere average of 238,857 miles away from us, yet it is entirely unsuited for life. Dreamy-eyed would-be moon rocketeers of our century would have to wear airtight, oxygen-equipped and bullet-proof suits to breathe where there is no natural oxygen and find protection from bulletlike meteor showers. In a world devoid of atmosphere, temperature variations will be violent One would find no comfort in either the moon’s daytime high of around 215 degrees Fahrenheit or Its nighttime low, perhaps 240 degrees below zero!

Nor would little Mercury prove a desirable home for man. One of its sides, turned sunward, bakes under an average 752-degree Fahrenheit heat while the other freezes. Any atmosphere is extremely rare and there is no water vapor whatever. Next-closest planet to the sun is Venus. So close to earth in size is this neighbor planet of ours that it is called our “sister planet”. But there the resemblance ends. Venus’ atmosphere is prolific with carbon dioxide but has little or no oxygen. In contrast with earth’s much water vapor, the atmosphere of Venus is extremely arid. There are no oceans and the atmosphere keeps closed in heat waves radiating from the surface that are first absorbed from the sun, so that the temperature there remains hotter than that for boiling water.

Going outward from the earth, on Mars one finds little to justify the many fables concerning life there. Reliable authority grants only questionable possibility for some possible plant life, and that only at the poles. There is little or no oxygen and Mars’ force of gravitation is but two-fifths of that on the earth’s surface. What of the so-called “giant planets”, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune? Best analysis available depicts these bodies with rock cores thickly covered with ice. They have atmospheres, but, as we have already found, just any sort of atmosphere is not sufficient.

Life is very particular and demands a certain kind, certainly not one such as these planets offer, empty of oxygen or water vapor and generously saturated with various poisonous gases. Pressures under these atmospheres are prohibitive. Jupiter’s surface pressure is said to be at least a million times greater than that on earth.

Pluto is too far out to have yielded much information about itself as yet. But following the theory of progressive cold on the outward planets, it is probably as impossibly cold as Mercury’s sun-exposed side is warm. The many little asteroids may be mentioned, but their slight size disqualifies them. They have no atmosphere, no water and no gravity. Our solar-system tour has uncovered no sign of life outside the earth.

The Earth, the Planet of Life

The noted British scientist, Sir James Jeans, in his book The Universe Around declared: “The earth is the planet of life, because it is at the right distance from the sun, but we have no reason for thinking that life of the kind we know on earth—life which requires hundreds of millions of years for its development—has either passed from Mars or will in due course appear on Venus; these planets are at the wrong distance from the sun.” We need not be troubled by his tendency toward evolution involving man’s age. More recent experiments have brought it much nearer. Hie point is nevertheless made that the earth holds a unique position able to bear life. And what magical fragmentary amount of the sun’s total energy continually dispatched in all directions provides just the right amount for life on earth? About one two-billionths of the total! And were we placed at just the spot necessary to absorb that amount by mere chance? O most fortunate of accidents!

Earth’s atmosphere, all-necessary to life here, is remarkable in itself. It shields the earth from the meteor showers that plague bodies like the moon, vaporizing virtually all such intruders long before they reach terra flrma. It lets man breathe. It diffuses the sunlight in beneficial proportions for plant, animal and human life. We note another phenomenon in its composition. Among metals, the sameness in kind and the proportion in which they are found on earth and in the sun make some scientists confident that the earth was born of the sun. If this is true the fact that this proportion does not hold good respecting gases in earth’s atmosphere is extraordinary.

For example, hydrogen composes ninety or ninety-five per cent of the sun’s atmosphere, but only a very minor amount of earth’s. Nitrogen, very evident on the sun, stars and nebulae, in earth’s atmosphere amounts to about only one part in two million of the entire earth’s weight. Illis becomes most noticeable with the “rare gases”, argon, neon, helium, krypton and xenon, rarest of all earth’s elements. Their presence in the atmosphere is infinitesimal, and of these only helium is found In the interior of the earth. Yet some of these are known to be very abundant elsewhere in the cosmos. Again the conclusion rises that the earth was prepared for its purpose just as the sun and other bodies were for theirs.

Were it all an accident, how remarkable that the earth’s speed turned out to be the rate it is! Fortunate indeed, for any appreciable change in its rate of revolution around the sun (once each year) or its rate of rotation (once each twenty-four hours) would work a vast change in our climate, and yvere this altered as much as fifty degrees for one year, then, says A. Cressy Morrison, in Man Does Not Stand Alone: “All vegetation would be dead and man with it, roasted or frozen.”

It does not follow that all planets enjoy the seasons as we do, the winter following

fall, and summer the spring. But invaluable forethought in the earth’s 23i-degree tilt from the perpendicular assured this planet of seasons, further aids to life and growth. The action is explained in the New Handbook of the Heavens: “As the world moves round the sun with its axis always tipped at the same angle and pointing in the same direction, first one pole and then the other is nearer the sun. The direct rays shift from 23^ degrees north of the equator to the same distance south of that imaginary line, fee sun shines alternately 23 £ degrees beyond the north and then beyond the south pole. The days grow long in the northern hemisphere and then become short. These are the underlying causes for the change in the seasons.”

I

We recall that the moon was found unfit for life. But that does not prove it useless. Neither was it provided as a simple “plaything” for idle human curiosity. Without the pull of its gravity our seas and rivers would enjoy no tide phenomenon. But this could easily be overdone. Suppose, just by chance, our satellite had turned up only 50,000 miles or so away. The continents would be deluged and the mountains eroded by gigantic tidal waves that man has never conceived. Hurricanes would tear the planet daily, the earth’s very crust would crack! Consider the savage effects of the mere “ordinary” tidal wave accompanying Japan's earthquake early this past March.

Wizards Left Baffled

The extremely suitable natures of the forms of earth life for the earth further blast the idea that they and their home came together by some cosmic fluke. Take just one example, the marvelous cooperation between plants and animals to maintain the correct proportion of free oxygen. Animals breathe oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. This further stumps the “accident theorists”: Admittedly, free oxygen appears as a result, not the cause of plant life.

Men opce tried to explain the origin of the sblar system by describing how a shrinking, rotating vast nebulous sun cast off matter that formed the global planetary bodies. Along came those who believed the sun collided with a star to discredit this idea, only to have the tidal theory rise and laugh at both of its predecessors. Variations continue to come forth and continue to fail. H. Spencer Jones takes us back to the time the universe was launched on its great creative project, but he is unable to do more than honestly admit: “Exactly what did happen at that time, and why it happened, we do not know.” But there are some things of which we can be very sure.

For instance, we know that if, when it was finished, the earth had been given no atmosphere, like the moon, we could not live here. We can surely be grateful that our planet did not find itself with Mercury's unbelievable heat or the outer planets' unbearable cold or Jupiter's crushing pressure. How fortunate that the earth is just the size it is, has just the orbit it does and was not buried in ice, left without water or fumed with poison gases.

Unfortunately, some scientists, though they admit their lack of certainty concerning the origins and purposes of our universe, solar system or earth, are quick to speculate on how these will end. The variety of possible accidents they offer include a collision between two asteroids or a star with our sun or another body with the earth. But of such possibilities Sir James Jeans assures that “none of them is at all likely to happen within the next 10,000 million yeans or so”. In that time he concludes that the sun might well black out, thus ending all earthly life and leaving the planet a void. Were scientists but as learned In the Word of the true Creator as they are in some of his creative works they would have no fears of any of these threats in “10,000 million years”, or in all eternity:

“For thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to be inhabited:

I am Jehovah; and there is none else.” —Isaiah 45:18, Am. Start. Ver.

Jehovah's Word Is the only source giving full explanation to the Creative Force behind the scientific facts so evident in the universe. It verifies true science to show why all created works so marvelously fit their purpose. The Bible tells us what our eyes tell us, that we are no accident!

m Government

IT DOES not surprise people much in these troublesome times to hear of rebellions, revolutions, wars and the shedding of human blood. They are coming to be commonplace affairs. They happen everywhere. Corrupt politics and bad economic conditions are the breeders of such uprisings and wars- Relief is sought through force and violence where other means fail. Underlying these violent actions can be seen the strong desire for freedom, peace, justice and the absence of want.

For many years the Cubans had been under the oppressive, tyrannical rule of Spain. They wanted their freedohi, fought for it and gained it. They wanted Cuba for the Cubans and not for Spain. In 1898 they were freed, and in 1901 they drew up Cuba's first constitution and Cuba became a tuMedged republic, to take her place among the other nations of the world.

They were proud of their republic. They had molded and designed it to suit their needs. It guaranteed them freedom and was recognized as an equal by other democratic nations of the earth. She was accepted by her sister nations as a liberal country, even offering refuge to unwanted exiles of other nations, because she was liberabminded and freedom-conscious.

Since the time of her birth as a republic it has not been easy to keep in view her original purpose and desire to be a free and liberal people. Honest men have had to guard carefully their ideals to see that they were kept alive in the form of laws and guarantees. They have passed many hard tests, men with different views and purposes have risen to power and imposed their ideals upon the people for short periods of time. There have been stormy fights, even bloody revolutions; but they have only served to confirm in the Cuban mind the necessity of guarding more closely the guarantees of freedom.

As an outstanding example of the need to be ever vigilant to protect the rights of the people, to keep bright the democratic ideals, was the revolution of 1933. The government in power under President Gerardo Machado was overthrown by the revolutionary forces under the leadership of Fulgencio Batista. The rule under Machado had not been in harmony with the former high ideals of a government by the people and for the people. The rights of individ-

uals were not respected if their thoughts and actions were contrary to the thoughts and actions of those in power. The tendency was toward dictatorship. Many cruel and barbarous acts were committed against political opponents. The memory of those times is not pleasant to the liberal-minded Cuban. Batista annulled the constitution and established a provisional government He became known as the “strong man” of Cuba. But out of those dark days came a new constitution, setting forth anew the guarantees of rights and liberties so dear to the hearts of many.

The year 1952 was to be an important year to the Cuban people for two reasons: (1) It was the 50th anniversary of the birth of the republic, and (2) it was to be the year when the people would go to the polls to elect their new president for the next four years, In June would be the elections.

So for some time the different parties had been announcing their candidates, and they in turn told the people what they could expect from them when they were once in office. President Carlos Prio Socar-ras of the Authentic party was the present president, but since a president cannot remain in office more than one term of four years, at a time, he was to go out, to be replaced by someone else. Carlos Hevia was the new candidate for the Authentic party. There were various other candidates running, among whom was General Fulgencio Batista (the one who had overthrown the government in 1933). He was chosen by the Pau party (Partido Accidn Unitaria). The scene was all set for an interesting election.

Quiet Revolution

In the early morning hours of March 10 a group of men were meeting together in the city of Matanzas. Their plans had all been made well in advance. The time had come to put them into practice. The meeting was for the purpose of getting final, last-minute instructions from their leader, who proved to be none other than General Fulgencio Batista of the Pau party and who had led the revolution in 1933. This time their purpose was similar: overthrow the government of President Prio.

At a given order they all got into their cars and drove rapidly to their appointed assignments in and about the capital city, Habana. General Batista himself would go to the army headquarters in Camp Columbia and others would go to other strategic places, such as the police headquarters, Marine station, power plant, radio stations, etc. Prearranged plans had been so well made that none found any resistance to speak of. Thus far everything was perfect.

Doctor Prio, the president, evidently unaware of what was underfoot, was at his country place with his family. Out of a deep sleep he was rudely awakened by the ringing of the telephone. On answering it, he was informed of what had happened. Batista, through the army, had overthrown the government. He hurriedly dressed and drove furiously for Habana, to the Presidential Palace, where, upon arriving, he found various members of his government and friends assembled. This was about five o’clock in the morning. Discussions were carried on, phone calls made, possibilities weighed. Should armed resistance be offered? How many of the provinces remained loyal? What were the chances? The seriousness of the situation could be seen in the tense faces and movements.

Outside, the city was coming to life after a few hours of rest. People were beginning to move about, preparing themselves to tackle the problems of the day. To most people it was just another day, like the one before. But wait a minute! What was that? You say that General Batista has gained control of the army, the

police and the marines and has evicted the government of President Prio? When did it happen? How? Goodness, that may mean fighting and bloodshed Now there are appearing more soldiers and policemen In the streets. There goes an army tank headed for the palace. Off in the distance are heard some shots. What was that? A fight between some of the guards in the palace and policemen of the revolutionary movement. Two were killed and several wounded.

Up in the palace President Prio arrived at a decision. There would be no armed resistance. He would not be responsible for any blood that might be shed, as he said in an interview reported in the magazine Bohemia of March 23. At approximately 8:15 a.m. he got into his car as the people looked on with mixed feelings. He went to the Mexican Embassy, where he stayed until Thursday, the 12th, on which day he with his family left for Mexico. Many persons were disappointed by this withdrawal of the president to a place of safety. As a public demonstration of their sentiment toward the action of General Batista, a large number of the students of the university buried the constitution, as though having been killed by the revolutionists.

On the other hand, General Batista justified his bold action because of the deplorable conditions that were prevalent in many parts, and almost unendurable, as he himself stated, as reported in the magazine Carteles of March 16: “Those that listen to me know perfectly that it is almost impossible to support any longer a reign of crime and bribery without guarantees, without hope and without any other horizon than that offered by those who have carried the country to the border of chaos,” and, also, that Doctor Carlos Prio, convinced of the unpopularity of his candidate, Engineer Carlos Hevia, had purposed to suspend the elections and bring the country under dictatorial rule. The 15th of

April was the day set to bring this about From this point of view General Batista would come to be a savior to the people rather than someone forcing his yvill upon the public contrary to their wishes. To fortify his position and assure himself of the necessary support, General Batista (as reported by Bohemia of March 16) raised the salary of the police to $150 per month and the soldiers to $100.

At the time of writing this article the constitution of 1940 has been annulled and a temporary one put in its place. General Batista says that when all necessary ar* rangements have been made, elections will be carried out and the people can select the officials they want. The slogan of the present government is “Peace, work and progress”.

How has the average Cuban citizen reacted to the happenings of the last several weeks? Surprisingly, to all outward appearances, he has accepted it as something inevitable, that must be met, borne, and maybe it might even be for the better.

Past experience has taught them that comparatively few officials are moral men, men of integrity- Few of them work for the real betterment of the people. Corruption, vice and immorality abound on every hand. Therefore, it is not strange that the people at times take alarming situations passively. What’s the use I We cannot change the situation. We will resign ourselves to it. Such is their attitude.

But do not despair. There is hope, a wonderful live hope. Do not look for it in corrupt, fallen man. Look for it through him who was able to make the universe and create intelligent human creatures, and who said through one of his faithful servants: “But there are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.”—2 Peter 3:13, New World Trans.

The Balanced uongressman

u'“TOPICS of the Times” Js a daily column ] in the New York Times which rambles on with all sorts of interesting anecdotes. On February 5 it whimsically recounted the efforts of Virgil Lissom. “up in the Adirondack hamlet of Sugarbushto balance the Federal budget. Part of the government’s deficit, says Virgil, "is due to congressmen," some of whom are likely to go overboard on pet projects for their area because "nothing unbalances a congressman like the easy job of spending other people's money”.

<[ It continued, ‘‘Since these pork-barrel projects may turn up wherever a congressman can find a likely body of water, Virgil decided some years back that there ought to be a river and harbor project in the Adirondacks, whitjh has never had one, having no large rivers and no harbor. Virgil wrote that to his congressman and proposed a project to deepen Alder Brook to fit it for seagoing vessels. He even drew a map showing ho\v Alder Brook ultimately connects, by a devious route, with the Atlantic.

<L “Virgil’s congressman grabbed at the suggestion. He admitted that he had never heard of Alder Brook and couldn’t find it on the map, but that could only mean one thing: that it certainly was in need of widening and deepening. The next thing Virgil knew government engineers came up for a survey and had quite a time slogging through the brush on the east side of Mount Kate. When they did find Alder Brook, which is about six feet wide there, they said it would take a lot of widening to make anything of it and even then they could not be sure just what it would make. Down in Washington the congressman must have picked up some adverse comment. He came up one day for his own survey and went away mad at Virgil, not so much because of the size of the brook but because the only constituents he could find in the whole area were six beaver.

<L “Back in Congress he loudly withdrew his request for the Alder Brook project, saying his conscience would not let him support it at a time when the nation needed a strict sense of balance and economy. Everybody pointed to him as a staunch advocate of a balanced budget who was courageous enough to put the nation ahead of his own district and wished for more men like him in Congress. Virgil was pleased, too. He always felt that it may be tough to balance a government budget but it's even tougher to balance a congressman,”

“The Shape of Things to Come”

“Two wars of unparalleled destruction have left in their wake no formula for peaceful living in the world. Forces that stir revolution and foment political crises are still rampant as populations increase and the flow of food and goods to nourish the world's economy is impeded. The path of collective security is strewn with the failures of nations. They have failed to keep the promises men must live by. ... In such a world more shocks and convulsions must necessarily be expected. . . . The illusion of the hour is the belief that some magic medicine of materialism will bring a strong alliance based on some new-found faith in a pooled sovereignty or even a super-sovereignty. . . . Free men can alter the shape of things to come. Free men can abandon the false gods of materialism and heed no longer the voices that would substitute the short-range lure of Expediency for the long-range security of Principle. Only thus can the world of today avert disaster.”—From an editorial in U. S. News <£ World Report, January 4, 1952.

Why Christian

Shun

BLIIIG

Millions of professed “Christians” gamble daily in America and In other parts of the world. Many character-building groups, including neighborhood and boys’ clubs, patriotic organizations that specialize in developing good citizenship, and churches, of which perhaps the Roman Catholic

Church is the most prominent, resort to illegal gambling enterprises to raise money. They justify the law violation on the ground that gambling is not immoral. This is “a type of rationalization which”, says Judge Morris Ploscowe, “will permit an evasion of most laws.”

Gambling in the form of bingo, which is quite popular in Roman Catholic churches, was recently defended at a legislative hearing in New Jersey as “an innocent pastime to which even ‘heaven’ could not object”. “People want a little fun,” said former Judge Robert B. Carey. “No God is looking down ready to kick people for playing a little bingo. . . . The playing of bingo will not disturb the angels of heaven.” (New York Times, March 13,1952) Ibis view is entertained by many religious leaders. “Reverend” Vincent F. Holden, founder of the Paulist information center in New York city, expressed the position of the Catholic Church on gambling in this way: If a person has what is termed an “honest” chance of winning and at the same time can afford to lose, why, then “there is nothing morally wrong in gambling”.

But is it true that “there Is nothing morally wrong in gambling”? When played fairly is gambling just, right, and moral? Does the fact that gambling is upheld and played by religious and prominent men justify its practice? Is gambling for pleasure justifiable? Does the Bible grant a Christian the right to gamble? Upon the following divinely set principle let us answer the above questions and see why Christians shun gambling.

“By their fruits you will recognize them. Never do people gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, do they? Likewise every good tree produces fine fruit, but every rotten tree produces bad fruit; a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, neither can a rotten tree produce fine fruit. Every tree not producing fine fruit gets cut down and thrown into the fire. Really, then, by their fruits you will recognize those men.” (Matthew 7; 16-20, New World Trans.) The fruits of gambling are unmistakably identified in God’s Word as rotten, fit only for destruction. Consider:

Nowhere is gambling justified in the Bible. It is, however, rooted deeply in pagan mythology, which is condemned in God’s Word as demonic and rotten. In Plutarch's treatise On Isis and Osiris reference Is made to Mercury's playing at tables with the Moon, “and wins from her the seventieth part of each of her illuminations.”

But to come down from the vaporings of mythology to prosaic fact, gambling has from antiquity been associated with crime and violence, which also is fruitage stemming from a rotten tree. Egyptians played at the game of Tau, the Game of Robbers. Romans were famous for their cheating with loaded dice. Sig. Rodolfo Lanciani, professor of archaeology ir. the University of Rome, says that wherever he had excavated he always found Roman gambling tables engraved or scratched on the marble or stone slabs for the amusement of idle

men, always ready to cheat each other out at their money. There was hardly a more ruinous pastime—a pastime in which Cicero himself places a gambler on par with an adulterer. (History of Gambling in England, by Ashton) Children were also initiated into the seductions of gambling by playing “nuts” and “head or tail**, betting on which side a piece of money thrown up in the air would come down. Today they are started off with bingo, beano, and the like. Pagan Roman gambling brought forth fruit worthy only of destruction.

The Roman Catholic Church has well named herself “Roman” by perpetuating Roman, pagan, religious pastimes in her religious organization. The lottery that originated with the Romans is a great source of revenue for the present “Roman” Church. Bingo, raffles, drawings, and guessing contests, changed only in name but not in deed, are but a few established gambling games carried over from pagan Rome and are now fostered by the present Roman Catholic Church in the name of religion.

Since such bingo games and drawings are considered small-time gambling, authorities seldom interfere with their operation, especially since such are operated in the name of charity. The church justifies gambling behind her walls by saying it is not immoral if a person has an "honest’* chance of winning. There is no such thing as an honest chance of winning. The mathematical odds or probabilities in all gamj bling games are so determined that only operators can win. Professional operators use various types of gimmicks and gadgets to control their games and give players no chance of winning. The mathematical advantage runs from a minimum of 1.5 per cent to a maximum of about 90 or 95 per cent. Those that appear honest and aboveboard take in from 1.5 to 30 per cent of the money wagered by players, depending on how the wagers are made. Bingo has an appeal because there is a winner in each game; but the players fail to realize that the prize is usually worth less than half of the money paid by the players. Thus, the bingo operator pockets a profit of 50 to 80 per cent.—Annals af American Academy, May 1950.

The true motive for operating these gambling games in churches is "easy money”. Herb Graffis, a well-known columnist, wrote: "Churches and charitable organizations run illegal gambling because that's the sure way of getting money for holy causes from the people who otherwise wouldn't contribute if the Almighty pushed a .45 at them.” But these same religious law violators are quick, says Graffis, to express themselves toward other violators in this way: "Those commies—they ought to be run out of the country, TTiey’ve got no respect for American laws.” (Chicago Sunday Times, October 18, 1949) Here again we see where gambling fosters dishonesty and a disrespect for law and order. It also reaches into the pocketbooks of the poor and takes their money under false pretense, a practice strictly repugnant to all that is just and right.

The desire to get something for nothing often leads the player to defy the law of mathematics and logic to a point where he gambles away his wealth as well as his earnings for some time to come. The principal sufferers in such cases are members of his family who are wholly dependent upon him for support. The community is often burdened with the family until the gambling debt is paid. Such a person has no wages to take home for Scripturaiiy supporting his family. He is rated worse than an infidel in God's Word. (1 Timothy 5:8) The winner is not honored in gambling, and the loser is not pitied.

The Catholic Church says "there is nothing morally wrong in gambling'’. The

Church must have a different, and In this case a lower, concept of morals than the rest of the world, because, commenting on the moral aspect of gambling, the Christian Science Monitor of June 1,1945, says: “No amount of profit from gambling can outweigh the inherent loss in moral values.’’ Ernest E. Blanch referred to gambling as an important social and political problem, “because it undermines the integrity of many public officials and helps finance gangster and underworld operations.” Governor Dewey of New York state recently said: “It is fundamentally immoral to encourage families to look to gambling as a source of income. It is an indecent thing for government to encourage the weaknesses of the people in order to finance itself from such weaknesses. . . . The entire history of legalized gambling in this country and abroad shows that it has brought nothing but poverty, crime and corruption, demoralization of moral and ethical standards, and ultimately a lower living standard and misery for all the people.” Yet the Roman Catholic Church sees nothing morally wrong with gambling. She is willingly blinded by the glitter of gold.

Do Scriptures Support Gambling?

Some try to justify their conduct by saying Israel cast.Lots and so did the apostles, which some understand to be gambling. (Leviticus 16:8; Numbers 26:52, 55, 56; Acts 1:26)' They argue, if lots were used by Israel and the apostles with divine approval, why is it not proper to gamble with dice, cards, and other forms of gambling games? They reason that what justifies the one should justify the other, and what condemns the one should in the same way condemn the other. To continue with this same line of reasoning would rule out gambling completely and immediately. Why? Because lots were never used for pleasure or sport, which would mean that dice, cards, tables, and other forms of gambling should never be used for pleasure or sport. Lots were used in connection with serious matters, by both the Israelites and the immediate followers of Christ

Lots were to be used in much the same manner, as was an oath. Both, when used, did suppose the testifying presence of God. So when lots were cast or an oath was given prayer was expressed or to be understood. The proper use of a lot, as of an oath, was to end a controversy. (1 Samuel 14:41; Hebrews 6:16) Israel did not cast lots for Selfish gain. The Roman soldiers did, when they cast lots for Jesus' garments, but those were not the lots used by the Jews in obedience to JehoVah's arrangement. The Jews cast lots to determine Jehovah’s decision in a matter. They were not trying to get something for nothing. When Israel cast lots, Jehovah caused them to fall according to his will; through this practice he made his wishes or decisions known to them. (Proverbs 16:33; 1 Samuel 14:41,42) Jehovah God governed the falling of the lots; therefore, they were to be used properly and not in sport.

And, too, we are commanded not to tempt God by a vain desire of a manifestation of his power and special care. (Psalm 78:18,19; Isaiah 7:12) “You must not put Jehovah your God to the test,” said Jesus. (Matthew 4:6, 7, New World Trans.) Had the Jews been using lots for selfish purposes, such as gambling, they would have been tempting God, vainly desiring the manifestation of his special providence in his immediate disposing. Also, whatsoever Jehovah God has sanctified to a proper end is not to be perverted to an improper one. “My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a cave of robbers.” (Matthew 21:12, 13, New World Trans.) God had sanctified lots to a proper end, namely, to express his wish or decision.

Therefore, to say that dice, cards, tables, etc., fall in the same category as lots, means also that they should not be used without divine authorization and then only to express his wish regarding a controversial point-Proverbs 18:18;Numbers 26:55.

Some argue that God has sanctified psalms to the praise of his name, and bread and wine to represent the body and blood of Christ, and yet it is entirely proper for Christians to sing psalms and to eat bread and drink wine, not only from necessity, but to cheer themselves; why, then, may not Christians enjoy themselves by gambling with lots or the like, even though He set aside the lot for the special purpose of ending controversy? Simply because we do not find in the Scriptures any special exemption for recreation by gambling, as we do find for wholesome enjoyment by singing, and for cheering ourselves by eating and drinking.—James 5:13; Deuteronomy 8:9,10.

The Bible definitely condemns unlawful gain. “For I the Loan love justice, I hate robbery and crime?* (Isaiah 61:8, An Amer. Trans,) The gambler does not work with his hands the thing that is good and pleasing, and he is not free from cheating and stealing. (Ephesians 4:28; Genesis 29:15) The fact that clergymen, priests, and prominent men gamble does not justify its practice, no more so than murdering would be justified if such men were to commit murder. We are admonished by God’s Word to live according to the standard he set for us through his Son Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:21) Jesus did not gamble. He did not set up an organization of gamblers. His apostles did not gamble. Nor do Christians today. Those who look down on Christians as trying to be overly righteous are often heard quoting Ecclesiastes 7:16, which says: “Do not be over-righteous, and be not excessively wise; why should you ruin yourself?*’ (An Amer. Trans.) But such persons should not stop reading there, they should continue reading through verse seventeen, which says: “Be not- overwicked, nor play the fool; why should you die before your time?’* (An Amer. Trans.) It is not good to be self-righteous or worldly wise, nor is it good to be foolish. We should consider the weaknesses of others, and not love pleasure more than we love God.—Proverbs 1:22; Romans 14:21;

2 Timothy 3:4.

Even though the word “gambling” does not occur in the Bible, the fruits of gambling are both mentioned and condemned. Christians will shun gambling as a rotten tree, rooted in demon mythology, prospered by pagan Rome, perpetuated by the false religious, corrupt, criminal element of this world, which will soon be cut down and, along with its rotten fruitage, will be destroyed in the battle of Armageddon.

Christians, as commanded, will respect their brothers, not deal falsely with them; they will not defraud, lie, cheat, or steal They will take to heart the Scriptural admonition: “Let the stealer steal no more, but rather let him do hard work, doing with his hands what is good work, that he may have something to distribute to someone in need, '* (Ephesians 4:28t New World Trans.) In this way they will follow a course in harmony with God’s Word, resulting in great joy now, and in the world to come everlasting blessings.

Do not be misled: God is not one to be mocked. For whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap; because he who is sowing with a view to Ais flesh will reap corruption from his flesh, but he who is sowing with a view to the spirit will reap everlasting life from the spirit.—Galatians 6:7,8, New World Trans,

ANOTHER sudden and very violent revolu-jl / tion has racked the re? public of Bolivia, result

ing In many dead and wounded and in a change of government. The people of La Paz were awakened by shots heard early Wednesday morning, April 9. Truckloads of armed men were seen going through the streets. The radio announced that during the early hours of the morning another government, the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR), had taken over in place of the military regime of General Hugo Ballivian. Radio Illimani, the official government radio station of Bolivia, which also had been seized by the MNR party, called the change of governments a bloodless, holy revolution, and announced that the jefe, or chief of the revolution, was General Antonio Seleme.

General Seleme, who had been the minister of government (minister of the interior) in President Ballivian’s cabinet, ordered all troops to remain in their barracks without offering resistance to the new government The radio also informed that General Humberto Tbrez Ortiz, chief of staff in President Ballivian’s government, was helping the revolution, but a later report stated that he tried to organize the resistance against the MNR. Others reported as participating on the side of the revolution were the national police, some of the young officers in the army, the veterans of the Chaco war and civilians, consisting especially of the laboring classes.

By “Awakt!1' Corr e ip end* nt in Bolivia

Another announcement was that the whole nation had been taken by the revolutionaries without shedding of blood. However, much blood was spilled, for, after all fighting was over, the press reported this revolution to be the bloodiest and most intense in Bolivia's history. Therefore it was not long before the call went out for men to defend the revolution against troops entering the south into Miraflores and against troops attacking from the “Alto” on the west. Spot announcements were also repeated about 7,000 miners’ coming from Oruro and the mining towns beyond Oruro to reinforce the MNR. By evening Radio Illimani was admonishing all the revolutionary forces to stay by their guns all night without falling asleep and to stay without food if it was necessary.

On Saturday after the fighting the La Paz daily, El Diario, stated that the situation looked very unfavorable for the revolution that Wednesday night with a part of the National Police and the veterans and civilians standing against three regiments of the army that had remained loyal to the former regime. Fighting was heavy that night, and 75-miUimeter cannon and mortar fire could be heard aimed by the Bolivar artillery regiment against the arsenal, which was in the hands of the rebels. The MNR held their ground that night, got more munitions on Thursday morning, and intense fighting continued all day. Later El Diario informed that by noon of Thursday the revolutionaries were in combat against eight regiments of the army, three from the south: the Military College, the

Engineers Battalion and the Lanza regiment; while there were five from the west and north: the Bolivar artillery regiment of Viacha, Abaroa cavalry regiment of Gua-qui, the Perez infantry of Coroco, the Sucre infantry of Achacachi and the Central Technical School regiment also of Viacha.

Big and little machine guns, rifle fire and occasional exploding mortar shells could be heard in almost all directions of the city. Ambulances and emergency Red Cross cars could be seen rushing through the streets picking up the dead and wounded. Planes flew overhead Wednesday dropping leaflets demanding that the revolutionaries surrender, while on Thursday MNR planes flew over and also dropped handbills. The roaring of guns continued until Friday afternoon, when all resistance to the MNR was silenced.

Casualties and Property Damage

As a result of the revolution many lives were lost and much damage was done to buildings and property about the city. Estimates published in the press were that 1,000 persons were killed and 3,000 wounded or missing, but even personnel at the hospital and morgue said there were at least 5,000 killed and wounded. A young doctor said that most of the wounded that had to have bullets extracted from their bodies died. There were so many needing medical attention that the main hospital and the public emergency hospital were full, and other emergency hospitals were set up. It was a sad week end and Easter Sunday for many individuals, for they could be seen on the streets, in buses and in public buildings grieving or crying because of the loss of their loved ones.

A number of homes were damaged by mortar shells that missed their mark, which also killed and injured various persons not participating in the fighting. One entered the home of a worker, killing three persons and wounding three others. The light lines were damaged, and the whole city was left without lights from early Thursday till Friday night and parts of it until Monday night.

There was also intense fighting in Oruro, where miners from the mines of Catavi, Sigio XX, Llallagua and Machacamarca and civilians of Oruro finally overcame the loyal regiments. About 100 persons were reported killed, and there were so many wounded that the local hospitals could not contain them, and therefore an emergency hospital was set up at the railroad station.

Historical Background

It will be recalled that the MNR party was thrown out by a popular revolution in 1946, when its president, Gualberto Villar-roel, and other officials were killed by the enraged people and hung on lamp posts on the central square. However, there was much published about how the MNR had brutally mistreated its opposers also,' and the people were just as enraged to throw it out then as they were to put down the Ballivian regime. Since 1946 the MNR had made attempts to come back into power, both by force and by national elections.

The conditions of the country in general did not improve while under the regimes opposed to the MNR and elected by the people, nor under the late military government. The country’s economy declined, the national currency continued to devaluate and lately there had been an acute shortage of bread, flour and other necessities of life. The sympathies of the common people began to swing back in favor of the MNR, and this was shown in the May 1951 elections, when the MNR candidates, Victor Paz Estenssoro for president and Hernan Siles Suazo for vice-president, gained a majority over each of the other parties in the race. It was shortly afterward that a facsimile of a document establishing a pact

far mutual co-operation between the MNR and the Communist party was reproduced in La Raz6n, a local paper. At the same time the president in office, Mamerto Ur-riolagoitia, resigned and handed the government over to General Ballivian’s military government.

Bolivia continued under the temporary military regime until the night of April 8, 1952, when a crisis and disagreement over new elections arose in President Ballivian's cabinet, resulting in opening the way for the revolution. Then General Selerrte- collaborated with the MNR and the revolution.

The New Rulers

With this revolution the MNR candidates in the 1951 elections, Victor Paz Estenssoro and Hernan Siles Suazo, took over as president and vice-president respectively. When Doctor Paz Estenssoro arrived from Buenos Aires, where he had been exiled for almost six years, he was given a big reception at the airport in La Paz, men carrying him on their shoulders part of the way from there to the government palace. In his home-coming speech, given on the balcony of the government palace to a huge multitude estimated at 60,000 persons, he proposed to solve various problems, such as nationalizing or bringing about government control of mines, extending public health service to include all classes, solving the problem of land distribution, etc. On this occasion two large pictures were hung just beneath the balcony from which he spoke, one being of himself and the other of President Villar-roel, who was killed in the 1946 revolution. Out in the crowd banners were held aloft by the workers, one of which read “Villar-roel Martyr, Estenssoro Savior”. In another address the president stated that his government would stick to two principles: “austerity,” or hardness, and “seriousness”.

A press editorial observed that “Perdn and Paz Estenssoro have many things in common. Both have the majority of support in the laboring class and attack capitalist imperialism as the principal enemy of their respective countries”. Another item of Interest in Bolivia is that La Razdn, the principal newspaper in La Paz, an opponent of the MNR, has not been published since the revolution.

The common people in Bolivia, who are greatly oppressed, look to the MNR as a party that can help them. All thoughtful persons realize, however, that all manmade relief can be only temporary. The “sign of the times" shows that we are in the “last days” in which “critical times hard to deal with" can be expected, as described by the apostle Paul. (2 Timothy 3:1-5, New World Trans.) God's Word clearly shows that mankind’s only hope is in the new world of righteousness by Christ Jesus, which will completely take the place of the present wicked system of things in the day of God’s wrath, and in which new world man will long enjoy the fruit of his labor. (Isaiah 65:21-23) It is Jehovah God and not man that will "break in pieces the oppressor”.-Psalm 72:1,4,7,8.

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