Awake!, December 8, 1955
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THE TRUE SOURCE OF MENTAL FREEDOM
What Future for the Atom?
So...You Are Having Your First Baby!
Strangest Trees on Earth
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
New* lourccs that are able to keep you awake to the vital issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. “Awoke I” 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; it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This Journal keeps itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it doeq not abuse its freedom. It maintains Integrity to truth.
“Awake I” uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on all continents, in scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on'the-scenes reports come to you through these columns. This journal’s viewpoint is not narrow, but is international It is read in many nations, in many languages, by persons of all ages. Through Its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural wonders—why, its cover* age is as broad as the earth and as high as the heavens,
"Awake I" pledges itself to righteous principles, to exposing hidden foes and subtle dangers, to championing freedom for all, to comforting mourners and strengthening those disheartened by the failures of a delinquent world, reflecting sure hope for the establishment of a right* ecus New World.
Get acquainted with "Awake!*1 Keep awake by reading "Awake!"
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CONTENTS
Pleasure Is Their God
More Disclosures on Radiation Dangers 4 Radiation Increases World Death Rate 4 The True Source of Mental Freedom 5
The Modem Town of Sodom
What Future for the Atom?
The Story of “Uncle Sam”
So *.. You Are Having Your First Baby! 13 A Million and a Half Quit Smoking 16 Strangest Trees on Earth
Why Many Stay Away from Church 19
Majorca, Pearl of the Mediterranean 20
The Roman Stoics and Christianity 21 “Your Word Is Truth”
Similarities of Stoicism and
Fusion Religion
Jehovah’s Witnesses Preach in AU
the Earth—El Salvador
Do You Know?
Watching the World
Volume XXXVI
Brooklyn, N, Y., December 8, 1955
Number 23
IS THEIR COD
(11J ILLIONS of people love pleasure UIIU more than they do God. It has generally been that way throughout history. "Probably no people,” writes historian John Lord, "abandoned themselves to pleasures more universally than the Romans. ... All classes alike pursued them with restless eagerness.” Were those pleasure-mad people without religion? No, they had their gods, dozens of them. But their god first and foremost was pleasure. A like parallel is seen today.
Is not this modem world teeming with vast numbers of lovers of pleasures? True, most of them practice a form of religion, but they show more love for pleasure than they do for God.
Record-breaking numbers of people attend church today, yet where, really, are their thoughts? Not on God. For even the churches, in their effort to hold some influence over a pleasure-seeking society, have turned to popular entertainment to lure their members at least physically into their houses of worship. Church entertainment centers now function with dutiful vigor; coffee is served in the crypt after communion and bingo enlivens cathedrals. Is it love for God that sends myriads of housewives to church, almost night after night, to play bingo, or is it love of pleasure?
This modern world produces lovers of pleasure on an assembly-line basis. And so there are television devotees who escape everyday life by plunging into the video world; to them the failure of an electron tube is a major calamity. Movie habitues dwell in many lands. Japan is producing a record crop. So long do Japanese pleasure seekers sit in theaters that Japan’s welfare ministry not long ago planned a two-and-a-half-hour limit on movies. Overeaters and heavy drinkers are pleasure lovers of another kind: they make their belly a god. The fervor with which pleasure lovers pursue their business of life suggests that they are trying to escape from something. Can it be that they are trying to run away from their own spiritual discontent?
For a certainty it is not just boredom and anxiety that propels people headlong into pleasure. There is indeed something else: an empty hope. Who is to blame? Christendom’s churches. The clergy’s "heaven or hell” preaching has not infused an invigorating, life-guiding hope into the masses. Their hell of eternal torment has offended many thinking people; their concept of heaven has bored others. An empty hope, one that really does not exist, is the result.
DECEMBER 8, 1955
So the people, uncertain of a future world, concentrate more completely on the pleasures of this world.
This devotion to pleasure instead of God is significant. For we are living in the last days of this system of things, at a time when a new world, not of man’s making but of God’s, is due to come in. The multitudes of pleasure lovers only add to the evidence: “Know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of .. . pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power.”—2 Timothy 3:1-5, New World Trans.
Those with hope of God’s new world stop being “slaves to various desires and pleasures.” For they know that ho “lovers otpleasures rather than lovers of God” will survive Armageddon and enter the perfect new world. Thus the emphatic warning is sounded by the Son of God: “Pay attention to yourselves that your hearts never become weighed down with overeating and heavy drinking and anxieties of life, and suddenly that day be instantly upon you as a snare. For it will come in upon all those dwelling upon the face of all the earth. Keep awake, then.”—Titus 3:3; Luke 21:34-36, New World Trans.
Mm Piic&Mitti m Xadittit/t
Much Jias been said of the danger of radiation, but at the Geneva International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy more disclosures were made. -Dr. W. L. Russell and his wife of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory described the danger of X-raying pregnant women. Dr. Russell said they had given large doses of X rays to mice in various stages of pregnancy. In the very earliest stages the unborn mice were either killed or unaffected by the radiation. Later in the gestation period all the irradiated fetuses produced abnormal offspring. Still later the radiation had relatively little effect. Dr. Russell suggested that medical men should avoid the X-raying of women in the early stages of pregnancy.
It has been generally assumed in the Western world that the human nervous system was less affected by radiation than other body processes. However, a Soviet delegate, Dr. A. V. Lebedinsky, said that Soviet experiments based on psychic response actions showed that the brain was "deeply" affected by radiation. But in spite of the increasing knowledge of radiation dangers, the scientists of fifty nations at the Geneva atoms-for-peace conference agreed that the long-term effect of radiation, whether from bombs or medical X-ray apparatus, was not known.
Xadfatto/l W&iU. Xttt
Britain’s top atomic expert, Sir John Cockcroft, has set the radiation dose needed to double human mutation rates at 50 roentgens per generation. In Nature, issue of July 16, 1955, a new and pessimistic calculation was made by one of the world leaders in statistics dealing with human factors. He is Prof. J. B. S. Haldane of University College's department of biometry, London, who argues that the radiation dose needed to double human mutation rates is little more than three roentgens per generation—about ten times as serious as Sir John Cockcroft’s calculation. This means that between 2,000 and 300,000 more deaths per generation are caused by world-wide radiation effects of nuclear weapons upon human heredity. The death toll is not what would occur in an atomic explosion used in war, but the effect on future heredity of such radiation spread over the world by test bombs.
*6 MENTAL FREEDOM
IfllEwTAi* freedom is greatly to be Im desired. Not just having a sane mind, but having a really free mind should be the desire of all people today. Yet, though there is vastly expanding education and such modem, rapid means of mass communication as newspapers, magazines, radio and television, the world still suffers a great deal ef mental bondage, confusion and fear. Wars, threats of wars, anxiety, frustrations, religious falsehoods and moral bankruptcy have all added to the mental strain of modern living.
According toColumbia University's department of psychiatry, one out of every ten public school children in the United States today is emotionally disturbed and needs mental guidance. Other figures show that almost half of the 1.5 million hospital beds in the United States are occupied by mental patients, and that each year 2.5 million American men, women and children are treated for some form of mental disorder. And while the strains of modernday living have emotionally upset many minds, there are millions of other persons whose minds, though healthy, are far from free.
Men’s minds have been enslaved by political regimentation in such places as Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, Communist Russia and a host of smaller totalitarian lands that exist to this day. They have been enslaved by blind support of false religious traditions—traditions that are not based upon true Christianity, but that
■ i,' | Why are men's mind* in bondage? And how can . f you overcome this to gain true and permanent mental freedom, even in these times? A rrind-fraeing message actually is available. Will you accept it?
have been adopted down through the centuries and are now accepted, without investigation, by a vast number of people. And they are further
held in bondage by faulty worldly education in the fields of evolution, science and the like that keep many people from accepting and believing the one real book of freedom, the Holy Bible.
Liberties that have been taken with the Bible under the false name of enlightenment have not actually freed men’s minds, but have further bound them in sin, slavery and death. Yes, the Bible does show the source of the slavery of men’s minds today. It shows that the first man and woman really had free minds, but that then catastrophe struck! Eve succumbed when tempted with the false promise of greater mental freedom: “Your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.” Upon succumbing to that false promise and disobeying the God of freedom, she went into the greatest of slavery.—Genesis 3:5, New World Trans.
The same invisible spirit creature that deceived Eve continues his evil rule down to this day. Thus,, wo are told that our fight is against "wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places,” and that Satan would be found "misleading the entire inhabited earth.” It is his invisible demonic influence that is the major source of mental slavery. And that is not hard to believe or to understand when we look at the inhuman, tyrannical, devilish conditions that Satan, through his human servants, has brought upon the earth even during our own short lifetime!—Ephesians 6:12; Revelation 12:9, New World Trans.
Thus, it becomes evident that mental freedom is not possible through self-effort today—that we cannot get this freedom without outside help. If it were possible through self-effort to overcome mental slavery, then through its wisdom this well-educated twentieth-century world could throw off its mental shackles, throw out its psychiatrists, tear down its mental hospitals, cast aside its fears, pour out its nerve tonic and exercise that freedom which self-effort would be able to bring it. But it cannot do so! Its human guides cannot lead it to its desired destination. This is because those who promise mental freedom are still under the control of the "god of this world,” Satan the Devil. That is one of the most evident facts in the book that they deliberately overlook, the Bible. Thus we are warned of those who, “while they are promising them freedom, , . . themselves are existing as slaves of corruption.”—2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 John 5:19; 2 Peter 2:19, New World Trans.
Real Freedom Now
But for those who are willing to look to its true source, mental freedom really is available today. Jesus was not wrong when he said: “If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Nor was the apostle misinformed when he said under inspiration: "When there is a turning to Jehovah, the veil is taken away. Now Jehovah is the spirit; and where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom.” The Bible contains the words and spirit of Jehovah and of his Son Christ Jesus. Therefore it is the book of freedom. It frees you from slavery to Satan and frees your mind from the fear of world conditions that so upset mankind today.—John 8:31, 32; 2 Corinthians 3:16,17, New World Trans.
Now, obviously, if you fill your mind with the world’s thoughts, then you will be in bondage to the same things that the world fears. But if you fill your mind with the things God has set out in His Word, your life will change. No longer will you think like the world, nor follow its selfish course, nor fear its fears. But you will, as the apostle long ago instructed: “Quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over, that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and complete will of God."—Romans 12:2, New World Trans.
You will see how Jehovah’s ways are just and true, loving and right. How he is a God of love, affection, kindness and mercy, and is patient and long-suffering. You will think lovingly of him and want to please him. Thus you begin to live according to God’s mind. You quit being fashioned*after this enslaved system and begin patterning your life according to the new things that you are putting into your mind. You then find that this produces a well-founded mental freedom far beyond anything you have ever imagined!
Yes, those who really want to be free from error, free from fear of man, and free to worship Almighty God in spirit and truth will find that this really is possible even today! This freedom comes through Jehovah’s Son, Christ Jesus, of whom it is prophetically written: "Jehovah’s spirit is upon me, because he anointed me to declare good news to the poor, he sent me forth to preach a release to the captives and a recovery of sight to the blind, to send the crushed ones away with a release, to preach Jehovah’s acceptable year.” (Luke 4:18, 19, New World Trans.) He provides a spiritual freedom now; but is that all? No, he will provide a physical freedom as well. He taught his disciples to pray for God’s kingdom and that God’s will should be done on earth “as it is in heaven.” Would it not bring you great mental peace to know that that prayer is in process of fulfillment now, and that soon, not Satan’s will, but God’s will, will be done throughout all the earth as it is in heaven? That will mean the end of greed, jealousy, oppression, fear, war—in fact, the end of all things that cause fear and mental oppression today. How different from the conditions that earth now knows! And the greatest of all news today is that the fulfillment of this prayer that you have no doubt prayed many times actually has started! —Matthew 6:10.
Sure Confidence in the Future
That is correct. Already the first steps in the abolition of earth’s present troubled conditions have begun. Telling of an event that would occur at some future time, Revelation 12:10-12 (New World Trans.) says: “Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God! ... On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” The very woes that have come upon the earth during the past forty years since World War I began in 1914, which woes have upset mankind and added to his confusion and fear, are a direct result of Satan’s anger, because he now knows that his time is short and his destruction is at hand.—Revelation 20:1-3.
But we are not left in doubt about this matter. Jesus described what specific conditions would occur as a result of Satan’s anger. His disciples asked him: “What will be the sign of your presence and of the consummation of the system of things?” His answer, given in Matthew chapter 24, described the very things that have happened since 1914. First “nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom” (an event that had never before occurred on a world scope), there would be widespread famines, an unusual number of earthquakes, rabid persecution of true Christians, earth-wide hatred toward them because they were upholding Christ’s position as the newly enthroned king, increased lawlessness, many forsaking Christianity, earth-wide insecurity and tribulation— in fact, the very things that mark this particular generation as outstanding. Thirty-nine different parts of the great Biblical sign that marks our day as the time of the end of Satan’s wicked rule have been listed. And perhaps the most startling is Jesus’ statement at Matthew 24:34: “Truly I say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.” The generation that would see these things begin would see them end! And the fulfillment of that prophecy actually began more than forty years ago! Thus, some people who are more than forty years old today will still be living when the destruction of Satan and his old system occurs. That is a startling statement, but the fact that the fulfillment of the earlier part of the prophecy has already occurred proves unquestionably that it is true!—Matthew 24:3-34, New World Trans.
Such a message should be widely published, so that everyone could know of it. And this mind-freeing message really is being proclaimed earth-wide today. Jesus foretold this, too, as a part of the sign of
the end of Satan’s wicked rule: “And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matthew 24:14, New World Trans.) Over six hundred thousand of Jehovah's witnesses throughout the earth are publishing this vital message in more than 160 different lands. They are carrying it to all the earth, not just using church buildings but, because it is so important, actually going to the people's homes with this message. Each day they publish nearly a quarter of a million magazines that, like this one, carry this vital message. And that is in addition to a yearly distribution of millions of books, booklets and other literature that provides this same vital Biblical information.
Knowing the reason for present conditions, what their outcome will be, and that their solution is near at hand, obviously frees the mind of the oppressive fears of our day. It removes the anxiety and frustrations that mark our time. The great Book of Freedom gives you confidence in the fact that mankind’s chief enslaver, Satan the Devil, and his whole wicked organization are soon to be destroyed, and that a great crowd of people, described in Revelation 7:9*17, will survive that destruction. It also shows how you can be a survivor. To become a survivor you must study God’s Word, gain from it the knowledge that leads to faith in God’s promises^ and then express that faith in the right works of living a clean life, serving Jehovah God and carrying this good message to others who can likewise become free-minded people.
The result of taking this wise course will be your everlasting release from bondage, sin and death. You will soon see Satan’s world destroyed—as God’s Word specifically promises—and will see all remaining on earth come into full freedom to serve a just and perfect God and to receive his righteous blessings for all eternity. As hundreds of thousands of other people are doing now, you can get this mental freedom by filling your mind with the truths of God’s Word and by taking the course that it outlines. Will you join with such free-minded people and receive these blessings ?
The .Modem Town of Sodom
"Jehovah made it rain sulphur and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens, upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah. So he went ahead overthrowing these cities, even the entire District and all the inhabitants of the cities and the plants of the ground.*' Thus reads the Bible account at Genesis 19:24, 25 {New World Trans.) concerning God’s destroying ancient Sodom so thoroughly that even the vegetation was wiped out. Recently the modern town of Sodom, recalling the terrible sulphurous and fiery destruction of Biblical times, came into the news. Reporting on modem Sodom (population 1,000), Leroy Pope of United Press radio in New York said:
"A new town of Sodom has arisen at the south tip of the Dead Sea to mine the potash and other minerals—the residue of the fire and brimstone that destroyed the Biblical town. It's an eerie place—the modem town of Sodom. The temperature goes above 100 practically every day yet it is so dry no one perspires. The Dead Sea is so salty there not a fish swims in it. The surrounding land—laden with minerals—is so void of organic matter that it produces not a sprig of vegetation. Naturally, there is no animal life of any kind—not even insects. Not a single bird flies over Sodom.'*
MpL HE atomic ' * revolution
Geneva Experts Make Sensational Predictions
is here. Already atomic power plants are in operation in the United States, in Britain and in the Soviet Union. Larger atomic power plants are now under construction in several countries. But the atomic age is still young. Obviously the atom, if harnessed for peaceful purposes, has a big future. Just what the world's most illustrious scientists envision for the atom’s future was revealed at a historic conference in August, 1955, at Geneva, Switzerland. It was the United Nations International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. The delegates numbered 1,260 from seventy-two nations, and there were 800 other observers. What made this meeting so momentous, so historic, that newspapers reported that nothing like it had ever happened before?
One event alone made thf conference historic. It was the first time that the Soviet Union lifted, at least in part, the curtain on the development of peaceful uses of atomic energy within its borders. The Russians so fully entered into the spirit of the conference that they described in detai 1 their 5,000-kiiowatt power plant that has been successfully generating electricity for over a year, the first in history to do so. : Russia also disclosed ; that it was completing the largest atomsmashing machine in the world. It will be twice as powerful as the one recently completed in the United States and will hurl protons at their targets with the enormous energies of 10,000,000,-OtK) electron volts.
But it was not just Russia’s cooperation that made the conference so outstanding. There was the so-called “atomic fair,” the first the world has seen. Many of the great, marble-crusted spaces in Geneva’s Palace of Nations were crowded with exhibits of the participating governments, exhibits that ranged from tiny Instruments to large-scale models of reactors. Most of the exhibits were eerily silent, with no whining of gears or throb of engines. Yet this quietness seemed appropriate, since radioactivity is both invisible and silent. The most popular exhibit at the “atom fair” turned out to be a United States reactor immersed in a 21-foot-deep pool of crystalclear water. Delegates could see it work. When the reactor was on, the atomic core gave off a soft, blue light. Visitors were fascinated as they looked down with perfect safety and sensed the atom’s power.
The Scientific Revelations
Yet what made the conference so epic was not the fair but the scientific revelations. A discussion of the five most important scientific revelations will prove valuable in grasping an appreciation of the atom’s future and its meaning to mankind.
First, there was the disclosure that the cost of atomic power for many parts of the world will be competitive with other fuels within a very few years. This was welcome news, since the demand for energy is growing so fast that some claim that soon ordinary combustibles cannot meet the need. By 1975 the demand will be acute. So the emphasis at Geneva was on power, power that can he produced by fission.
Just what is fission? It is one of the processes of releasing energy locked up within the nuclei of atoms. It is the splitting of the nuclei of some heavy elements, such as uranium and plutonium into two lighter elements. Fissile fuels, those that can be “burned" in nuclear reactors by the splitting of their atoms, release in the process an energy 3,000,000 times that of coal. This means that one pound of fissile fuel is equal, as an energy source, to 1,500 tons of coal. Yet there has been a major drawback to the wonder of fission energy: the high cost of production.
But at Geneva papers were presented by British, Soviet and United States scientists and economists. These indicated that nuclear-powered electric plants, within a few years, were likely to he cheaper than plants using conventional fuels for regions not specially favored with natural fuels. This includes large parts of the United States. The experts were convinced that, at least in countries where coal is very expensive, uranium is even now a competitive fuel. “Just ten years from now," predicted one American delegate, “no one will ever consider building a non-nuclear power generating plant."
The second major revelation concerned the rapid development of breeder reactors. Regarded as the atomic power plant of the future, the breeder reactor not only regenerates its fuel but actually creates more fuel than it consumes, working on a compound interest basis. Of keen interest to the delegates was news of the development of a British experimental nuclear reactor that produces twice as much atomic fuel as it consumes.
To appreciate the marvel of the breeder reactor it is important to know something about nuclear fuels. There are two kinds: fissile and fertile. The fissile fuels are those that can be “burned" in a nuclear reactor by the splitting or fission of their atoms. The fertile fuels are those that in themselves are not fissionable but can be transmuted or fnade into fissile substances by modern alchemy. In other words, the fissile substances are the “chickens," while fertile substances are the "eggs" that, if properly fertilized, can tie hatched into “chickens."
Nature has been very niggardly with fissile fuels. In fact, it has provided only one of these, the variant or isotope of uranium known as U-235. (Plutonium and U-233 are also fissile fuels but they do not exist in nature.) A ton of natural uranium contains only fourteen pounds of U-235, a fissile fuel, and 1,986 pounds of U-238, a fertile fuel. That is a ratio of one to 140. But in a breeder reactor each pound of fissile U-235, as it is burned, also transmutes at the same time more than a pound of the nonfissile U-238 into an artificial fissile element called “plutonium." And the marvel continues: This plutonium, in turr., as it is burned keeps on converting the nonfissile U-238 into more plutonium, on a compound interest basis, until all the 1,986 pounds of nonfissile U-238 are converted into fissile plutonium, an interest rate of 14,000 per cent!
A Thorium Boom?
The third major revelation was concerning thorium, a nonfissile element. Thorium is cheaper than uranium and is estimated to be from four to ten times as abundant. When used in a reactor, where chain reaction can be started with plutonium, it is turned into U-233, a fissionable type of uranium found to be more efficient than present fuels as a suitable source of atomic power. It is thorium that makes the breeder reactor a practical proposition. The possible role of thorium in nuclear energy, until recently a top secret in the United States, Britain and other countries, was outlined by Dr. John V. Dunwirth, head of the reactor physics group of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, England. The conference was left with the impression that thorium is likely to become a nuclear fuel more valuable than uranium in the production of large quantities of cheap atomic power. The effect on the big-business men present was immediate. The question they wanted answered was: Is the value of uranium likely to fall off drastically in twenty or forty years, so that all the expensive prospecting now going on would be wasted?
Taming the Hydrogen Bomb
But if speculation over thorium caused a stir among the big-business investors, it was news over the taming of the hydrogen bomb that raised an apprehensive turmoil. This news came in the form of a talk by the president of the conference, Professor Homi Bhabha cf India. Dr. Bhabha made a sensational prediction that electrified his audience; "The historical period we are just entering, in which atomic energy released by the fission process will supply some of the power requirements of the world, may well be regarded one day as the primitive period of the atomic age.” What did Professor Bhabha mean?
He went on to give scientific revelation number four: that man will go on to tame the hydrogen bomb: “It Is well known that atomic energy can also be obtained by a fusion process, as In the hydrogen bomb, and there is no basic scientific knowledge in our possession today to show that it Is impossible for us to obtain this energy from the fusion process in a controlled manner.” Then Dr. Bhabha galvanized his audience by saying: “I venture to predict that a method will be found for liberating fusion energy in a controlled manner within the next two decades.”
Obviously, businessmen responsible for investing millions of dollars in uranium processes and plants wanted to know whether other forms of energy, including : power from the fission of uranium atoms, might suddenly become obsolete.
No one could answer the question for a certainty. But this much was clear: It was the first time that a scientist of the high standing of Dr. Bhabha had ventured to make such a prediction. The fact that other noted scientists from other countries agreed with Dr. Bhabha did not ease the apprehension of the business investors. Indeed, their fears only intensified as Admiral Lewis L. Strauss, chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, revealed that AEC scientists have been working for a considerable length of time on the problem of harnessing fusion energy. Only a “very few years,” Strauss told the delegates, separate the United States from the process of putting fusion explosive power to work. Britain, too, finally admitted that its scientists have been working on control of fusion energy, though with no hint of success. Yet all scientists agreed that the energy of the H-bomb would eventually be harnessed. Some of the more optimistic even expressed the view that the problem would be solved within the next five years.
This brings us to scientific revelation number five: the energy resources of mankind In the atom are practically unlimitedEven now without the fusion process, scientists point out, the potentialities of thorium as a source of fissionable material give man literally millions of years’ supply of energy to court on.
And what will be mankind’s lot when the hydrogen bomb is tamed and fusion energy put to work to do man good instead of evil? “When that happens,” declared Professor Bhabha, “the energy problems of the world will truly have been solved forever, for the fuel will be as plentiful as the heavy hydrogen in the oceans.** (Heavy hydrogen, named deuterium, is found in all waters in a ratio of one part to 5,000 of the light hydrogen.)
Yes, then man will finally have found a fuel supply that will last even as long as the sun itself. But more than that: man will then have the means to move entire mountains, to irrigate entire deserts and to transmute poverty into plenty. Thus it was that Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Lewis L. Strauss made the confident prediction: “It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter; will know of great periodic regional famines In the world only as matters of history; will travel effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a minimum of danger and at great speed. * ।. This is the forecast of an age of peace.”
THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM
People sometimes wonder how the United States ever received the nickname “Uncle Sam.” Most Americans do not even know the story. It all began during the war of 1812 In the region of Troy, New York. One of Troy’s best-loved citizens was a man by the name of Samuel Wilson, known to the residents in the area as “Uncle Sam." When the war broke out “Uncle Sam” decided to set himself up in the slaughterhouse business. He did quite well. But one day his market expanded on a grand scale. An army contractor named Elbert Anderson asked if he could buy meat to feed a Couple thousand soldiers stationed near Troy. “Uncle Sam” agreed and his workers began packing the meat in wooden casks. On one end of the barrel they burned the initials “U.S.—E.A."—meaning the United States and Elbert Anderson, the contractor.
In a short time the meat was shipped out to the army barracks. Some of the soldiers who lived in the Troy area saw the wooden casks with the initials “U.S.—E.A." and they immediately tabbed the initials as standing for “Unde Sam” and Elbert Anderson. Since the coincidence of the initials suggested the application of this nickname to the government, the phrase spread through the army. Soon the phrase caught the public fancy. By the end of the war newspapers over the country were referring to the American government as “Uncle Sam.” By 1848 the nickname found its way into the conservative pages of Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms. Soon political writers throughout the world were picking up the phrase. In a lew short years, the name “Uncle Sam” was common usage in the four corners of the globe.
A YOUNG man in-■ “ ’ quired of his father about rearing children: “Son,” said the father, “have three—then throw the first two away.” Puzzled at the reply, the young man turned to his mother with the same question, and she answered him similarly: “If only I could have had my second baby first,” she said. Meaning, of course, that * both fathers and mothers gather precious experience by having and caring for their first child— experience that no amount of books, pamphlets and expert advice on child care can impart. That is why mothers of large families will often say, the more children you have, the easier the job becomes.
But no matter how many children you may have, each one is different; each one is an exciting bundle of joy, a thrilling new experience! Mollie S. Smart describes parenthood as “a tremendous experience. It feels wonderful, horrible, beautiful, frightening, exciting, stifling—all at the same time.” With the coming of the infant, life takes on a brand-new appearance and meaning for mother. And being a mother and a homemaker stands out among the most important and fascinating jobs in the world. And all this because of baby.
Having a baby is one thing, but being a good parent is another. Any undertaking worthwhile has its share of worries and problems, and bringing a miracle into the world is certainly nothing to be winked at The constant awareness of the tremendous responsibility of caring for an infant and his dependence on you for life is both thrilling and frightening. Yet the joy he brings into life overshadows anything and everything anyone may ever think, say or do.
No doubt, the warm, all-rewarding feeling that wells up in new mothers is an instinctive joy placed there in woman for । fulfilling her part. “Lo, children are a heritage of Jehovah; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.” Happy, too, is the man whose
i- child is brought up “in the discipline and ti authoritative advice of Jehovah.” No small l- assignment this in a world seething with u crime and delinquency. But the first few years of the baby’s life are all yours. You u have an excellent opportunity to help him e build a solid foundation to face the future.
v —Psalm 127:3-5, Am, Stan. Ver.; Ephe>. sians 6:4, New World Trans.
Home-Life Influence on Infant
Home is the infant’s first schoolhouse. From the day he is born it will continue to influence his behavior. Some experiences he gathers will continue with him for the rest of his life. The newborn infant begins almost immediately to learn what his father, mother and other people are like. He feels his surroundings before he sees them. He senses their love and affection that they bestow upon him. In their grasp he feels secure. He knows his parents as people who hold him close and play with him. When he is born his mind is extremely sensitive, carefully registering whether you are rough or gentle with him, the care you take when you bathe, dress and feed him. These are his first experiences with humankind, his first lessons in love, co-operation and patience. So do be careful to make these good impressions.
Taking care of baby is a twenty-four-hour job. At times it is exhausting, because of the number of new details that you know nothing about, plus the fact that you are still weak, A new mother regains her strength slowly. In her weak moments she is liable to feel blue and discouraged. Learning to give baby a bath and change his diapers does not take years to learn. What does take time is to know his needs as a person, the love and affection to shed upon him, the way to hold him and give him a sense of security—these things are just as important as his physical care; perhaps more so.
Every new mother should want to do her very best. Sometimes her conscientiousness may tend to magnify her inexperience and lack of ability. She may be prone to feel herself clumsier and more awkward than she actually is. Striving for perfection only leads to frustration. So, do not take your job too seriously. You will make mistakes. All mothers do. Your baby is not exactly fragile. It is amazing how tough he really is! Often new mothers say; “I'm so afraid I’ll hurt him if I don’t handle him right.”
Dr. B. Spock says that is a lot of nonsense. “You don’t have to worry,” he says, “you have a pretty tough baby. There are many ways to hold him. If his head drops backward by mistake it won’t hurt him. The open spot in his skull (the fontanel) is covered by a tough membrane like canvas that isn’t easily injured. The system to control ^iis temperature is working quite well by the time he weighs 7 pounds if he’s covered halfway sensibly. He has a good resistance to most germs. During a family cold epidemic he’s apt to have it the mildest of all. If he gets his head tangled in anything he has a strong instinct to struggle and yell. If he’s not getting enough to eat, he will probably cry for more. If the light is too strong for his eyes, he’ll blink and fuss. (You can take his picture with a flash bulb, even if it does make him jump.) He knows how much sleep he needs and takes it. He can care for himself pretty well for a person who can't say a word, can’t control his arms and legs, and knows nothing about the world.”
First Things to Do
The first thing you can do for your baby is to love him; then hold him closely and warmly. He loves this. And when you feed him, there is no substitute for skin-to-skin closeness. He also enjoys the feeling of firmness and the support that your arms give him. He likes being touched and patted gently and the feeling of being closely wrapped. He does not like sudden moves, sudden changes of temperature. He finds it disturbing and unpleasant, too, to be unnecessarily handled by strangers. Unfamiliar voices and faces irritate him when he wants to sleep. So be kind. Do not force other people on him. Protect him from them. Remember, he is just a little tot, and your companionship and play are about all he can take.
An infant is also easily upset by confusion, hurry, loud voices and other things that nervous people do. His behavior is but a mirror that reflects what goes on
around him. He knows when mother is worried or tired too. Angry voices scare him. He does not understand what you are saying, but he can feel how you say it. A government pamphlet on infant care says that babies will often refuse to nurse when mothers are upset, not because mother’s milk has gone bad, afe some think; rathe? it is because the infant feels the mother’s excitement almost as much as she does. So it is not the mother’s milk that has gone wrong, “but her feelings.” It is important to your baby's health that you keep your own spirits high and your nerves calm.
Everybody loves a baby, and every baby needs to be loved. “Every baby,” says Dr. Spock, “needs to be smiled at, talked to, played with, fondled—gently and lovingly—just as much as he needs vitamins and calories, and the baby who doesn't get any loving will grow up cold and unresponsive.” So smile at baby every time you pick him up to change him, or to bathe and feed him. Play with him a little. He is getting the priceless feeling of belonging to you and that you belong to him. Nobody else in the world can give him that, no matter how skillful he may be.
Mother, Too, Needs Care
Do not be surprised if you feel depressed and let down when you first take full charge, because new mothers usually go through such feelings. For such a tiny creature, an infant surely demands some big changes in your daily routine and life. Since he cannot adapt himself to your ways of doing things and to your schedule, it necessitates your adjusting your schedule to suit him. The first few days, maybe weeks or even months, may be trying ones. The baby may turn your nights and days upside down and inside out. But if you expect this to happen, it will not upset you as much.
Make up your mind that you will have to take things easy for a while, which means that you will have to close your eyes to some of the household duties, the dusting, cleaning and washing that ordinarily have to be done. This respite is to give your body an opportunity to build up strength. It may be necessary for you to sleep a little during the day when the baby is asleep. This will lift your spirit and make you more cheerful and you will not feel nearly as worn out when the baby keeps you up during the night.
It is wise to get your baby supplies ahead of time. A little job like buying a dozen nipples can appear to be a tremendous task when you are exhausted and do not have an ounce of strength left. If you understand that it is mostly because you are weak that you feel blue, discouraged, and have that let-down look, you will not feel half so bad.
As far as having "free time,” time for - yourself, that will be extremely limited for a while. Your personal freedom you have exchanged for the joy of having your baby, watching it grow and being its mother. Use wisely the little free time that you may have. Remember, you are the infant’s mother and baby’s needs will not be met if mother’s needs are forgotten.
Fathers are generally surprised to learn that baby needs them too. Fathers have a tendency to slip away and watch from the sidelines. And it may surprise new mothers to learn that fathers are good at more things than just walking the floor during the middle of the night with baby, or warming the bottle and changing diapers. A new father may be no clumsier than a new mother at giving an infant a bath or holding baby in his arms or lap and giving him the bottle. And baby, too, wants to get acquainted with his father.
Common Sense and Motherly Instincts
Dr SpOck says, “You know more than you think you do” about rearing babies* So “don’t be afraid to trust your own common sense.” “VVc know for a fact/’ he said, “that the natural loving care that kindly parents give to their children is a hundred times more valuable than their knowing how to pin a diaper on just right or making a formula expertly.” “It may surprise you to hear that the more people have studied different methods of bringing up children the more they have come to the conclusion that what good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is usually best after all.” Let parental instincts guide. Whether your newborn baby weighs five or ten pounds, he looks surprisingly complete. From the hair on his head to his tiny toes, some twenty inches or so away, he is ready to take in experience and enjoy living* So remarkable is this miracle that happens tens of thousands of times each day in the world that we unite with King David to praise the One who made this gift possible: “I will give thanks unto thee [Jehovah]; for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made: wonderful are thy works; and that my soul know-eth right well.”—Psalm 139:14, Am, Stan. Ver.
A MILLION AND A HALF QUIT SMOKING
Have you tried to break the tobacco habit and then given up in discouragement?
Well, it cannot be too difficult when, according to the New York crimes, June 22, 1955, one and a half million Quit smoking in the Uni ted States the past year and a half. Among that number were a half million women. No doubt the fact that so many cancer specialists keep pointing an accusing finger at cigarette smoking as the No. 1 cause of lung cancer has had some bearing on so many breaking off the tobacco habit. Consistently, the American Medical Association refuses to carry any tobacco advertisements in their publications. The report, however, also showed that there were 25 million men and 13 million Women that still smoke. And among men between the ages of 25 and 64 two out of three still smoke.
An oriental mind apparently outsmarted itself recently. Police accused a Japanese welder in Toyko of trying to bum down his house for insurance. The purpose of the plot was to avoid being on the scene when the blaze started* Police said the welder put a pail of gasoline in a closet, set an electric heater atop the pail and then placed a celluloid soapbox on the heater* He next connected an easily operated switch to the heater, ran a long cord outside the house and attached a piece of dried fish to the end of the string. Police explained that the device worked this way:
A stray cat tugged at the fish and pulled the cord that snapped on the heater that ignited the soapbox that fell into the gasoline that flared up and set the house on fire. But this complex invention was all to no avail—the welder was nabbed and jailed on arson charges.
D O YOU like strange things? Then you have but to look up the strangest trees on earth* Oh, there are many trees that whet our appetite for exotic and excitingly different things, some so weird that no human artist, even in his wildest imagination, could conjure up what nature has produced. Among the many candidates for the title of the seven strangest wonders of the tree world are: the cow tree, the shaving brush tree, the shooting tree, the cream-of-tartar tree, the tree that wears a petticoat, the murderous strangler tree and the tree under which 10,000 people can stand.
The cow tree is the tree that your milkman would like to slay with the ax— especially if you were to have one in your backyard. No wonder this tree would make the milk salesmen furious! It is a vegetable milk fountain. All you need is an instrument to pierce the tree’s bark. Then it starts to flow with a highly nutritious milky juice with an agreeable creamy odor and taste recalling that of cow’s milk. So the tree is called cow tree, but people in South America aptly call it drbol de leche (milk tree). At the rising of the sun the cow tree is most abundant, giving freely to those who are thirsty its rich, creamy goodness. Families who live near cow trees are assured of milk for the children. In this day of rising milk prices the cow tree could be used to great advantage in anyone’s backyard!
If the cow tree is strange, the shaving brush tree is stranger. So strange is this tree that one can scarcely believe his eyes
and ears! Belonging to the Bombax family of tropical] American trees, the shaving brush tree shows not the slightest sign of a leaf at the time of its blooming. Every twig ends in a bud that grows out into what reminds one of a fat cigar in a stubby holder. Then, quite suddenly, the cigar explodes. The explosion is a real noise! Persons standing nearby can readily hear the “pop.” After popping, the bud spreads out into a cockade, an eight-inch brush of golden-tipped coral filaments that looks exactly like a shaving brush. In Mexico, Central America and a few places in Florida this incredible tree that literally bursts into bloom may be both seen and heard.
The Shooting Tree
A traveler walking in the depths of the dense forests of the Brazilian Amazon may well find himself under attack. Bang! Pop! A round, shiny missile whizzes by his head. No, this is no attack by savages; it is just the shooting tree doing some target practicing for the benefit of posterity. This tree has sufficient ammunition—its own seeds!
Salvos of them! These seeds belong to the so-called Para rubber tree and come in a mottled-gray three-lobed capsule. When this tree is ready to shoot, the traveler might be surprised by a popping noise and might even be hit by a round, shiny seed.
Three seeds are present in each fruit and are forcibly expelled by the splitting at maturity. If you are standing within 60 feet of the triple-barreled shooting tree, you may feel the fury of a vegetable fusillade!
The baobab or cream-of-tartar tree of Africa makes Its claim as a strange tree for several reasons. First, it is an oddity in “tree-trunk growth; it reaches a girth of nearly a hundred feet! Not only that, but the baobab is a marvel in being bountiful to both animal and man. Monkeys love the fruit of this tree, and men often find it a lifesaver. During the rainy season the tree’s knotted hollows preserve water, which can be found weeks and even months after dry weather has set in. Indeed, for some Africans this tree is the chief source of the precious fluid.
But the baobab is much more than a vegetable canteen; it is almost a grocery store. Its flowers are sometimes crushed with sugar and water to make a refreshing and unusual beverage. Its seeds yield a valuable oil. The rind of the pods can be chopped and mixed with milk or water to make a nourishing biscuit. The pulp surrounding the seeds is crushed and ground into a powder used for flavoring food. So because parts of the baobab are used in flavoring food it has become known as the cream-of-tartar tree.
Strangely enough, this tree has not exhausted its oddities. Sometimes the baobab's multiple trunks weld themselves together to form a tree that looks like a beer bottle. Even the color of the bark is odd. It looks exactly like the color of an elephant’s skin. So, many a hunter, upon emerging suddenly from a dense brush, swings his rifle with deadly intentions at the baobab tree. If he is trigger-happy and blazes away, another oddity is revealed. Though the baobab may be the largest tree as far as girth of trunk is concerned, its soft, spongy wood bffers little resistance to a bullet, which will completely penetrate the largest of them.
Tree That Wears a Petticoat
In the heart of Africa glows the silkcotton tree, also called the kapok or ceiba tree. It is a tree with the freakish appearance of something from the landscape of an artist’s nightmare. But then it is doubtful that an artist, even with his imagination turned loose, could come up with the tree that wears a petticoat, Instead of having a simple trunk like a maple tree, the silk-cotton tree has a trunk that flares out in folds like a gigantic petticoat. These folds often begin as high as 30 or 40 feet above the ground and form a skirt whose hem line could enclose a small house. This wooden petticoat serves a very useful purpose. The tree’s roots are shallow, so were it not for these skirtlike braces the tree might easily be uprooted in a storm.
Just as the python makes its living by coiling around its victim and squeezing it to death, so there are trees that, to get a start in life, strangle other trees to death. New Zealand’s strangler tree, Metrosideros robusta, is commonly called the “rata.” It starts as an epiphyte or air plant. Soon it sends down aerial roots that clasp the host tree’s trunk. Finally they reach the ground and increase in size and number. The rata, kindly assisted by the host tree, grows into a Frankenstein. Soon the rata entwines the host tree in a crushing network of roots that embrace it in a death-dealing stranglehold. The host tree, of course, puts up a fight, but usually it is not strong enough to win.
Interestingly, there are three New Zealand timber trees that defy the strangler. One is a pine called “kauri,” whose bark sheds frequently by scaling, thus preventing the strangler's rootlets from gaining a solid foothold. Two other trees that win
the battle with the strangler are the puriri and the maire, both of which resist the strangler’s embrace because they are sturdy, strong trees with a very hard wood.
The Single-Tree Forest
Can a tree be one tree and yet be a forest? It seems impossible, but not for the Indian fig tree called the “banyan tree.” From its very beginning the banyan tree is an oddity. Since its seeds seldom germinate in the ground it relies on the birds for help. Birds obligingly place the tree’s seeds in the crown of a palm tree. Soon a bird-placed seed sprouts right on top of the palm tree and sends down aerial roots that grip the palm tree in a stranglehold. The palm tree dies and the banyan tree takes its place. This is only the beginning!
Not content to live in the space usually allotted to a single tree, the banyan tree throws out branches. As they grow they put out hanging roots that increase in length till they reach the ground, and there take root and develop into new stems. In this way the tree spreads farther and farther all round the original trunk with an ever-growing number of stems that become as thick as the trunk itself. At last the banyan loses all resemblance to a single tree and takes on the appearance of a miniature forest.
In India some of these single-tree forests cover an unbelievably enormous area. They become the home of hundreds of bats, birds and monkeys. If the center trunk of the tree decays and dies, that is all right. The tree lives on supported by the many root stems it has thrown down and it draws nourishment from the ground by their means. In the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, India, there is a banyan tree with the main trunk over 40 feet in circumference. It has 230 secondary trunks 10 to 60 feet around, and more than 3,000 smaller trunks. Understandably, as a shelter from the hot Eastern sun the banyan tree has no equal. It is the only tree in existence under which almost 10,000 people can stand!
There are many other candidates for the title of strangest trees on earth. Keep your eyes open wherever you are. Learn to appreciate the singularly beautiful and strange features of each kind of tree, just one of the many plants that the Creator, Jehovah, made for the rich enjoyment of man. With some 70,000 different kinds of trees to choose from, you will soon be able to cast your own votes for the strangest trees on earth.
Why Many Stay Away from Church
Why do 64,000,000 Americans, or 40.5 per cent of the population, stay away from churches? Look magazine, in its issue of March 22, 1955, asked that question. The magazine answered: "Many stay away because of the denominational rivalries and bickering. Some dislike formal, elaborate rituals. And some (though they do not know it) follow the example of the noblest man our land has produced, Abraham Lincoln, who, in a startling and little-known statement of his faith, declared that he had never united himself to any church because he found difficulty in giving his assent, without mental reservations, to the long, complicated statements of Christian doctrine which characterize articles of belief and confessions of faith: 'When any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification for membership, the Saviour's condensed statement of the substance of both law and Gospel, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself," that church will I join with all my heart.*"
REFORCE, PEARL OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
fry “Awak«” corr«»porMi*nt in Spain
SB3f HE Balearic Islands are nestled in the blue | Mediterranean Sea just east ci Valencia, jJ|. Spain. The largest of the isles, Majorca, Is sometimes called “The Isle of Dreams?1 That Is not exactly a misnomer, either, because here the mellow climate unites its gentleness with the picturesque landscape to create a virtual dreamland paradise for artists and poets.
The high peaks that stretch across Majorca are covered with snow during the winter months. Along toward spring the delicate petals of the almond blossom blanket the lowlands like sheets of white, sparkling dew. In these lower areas flourish apricots, figs and vines. An ingenius system of irrigation ensures a steady water supply to the arid areas. The water is usually drawn into a Concrete tank by a pump driven by a windmill. From the tanks the water supply can be controlled by a sluice. The water is led along artificial cement channels to strategic points on the farm. From there the farmer guides it by suitable furrows to fertile fields.
r Older than the windmill for drawing water is the noria. This ancient system, dating back to about the eighth century, involves a kind of crown wheel and pinion made entirely of wood, and is operated by a mule, generally blindfolded, that walks in circles around the well while harnessed to the beam that extends from the center. A series of pots attached to a long continuous chain hauls the water up and at the surface spills it into a cistern. The Spanish name for these pots, arcaducest confirms the origin of this system as being Moorish.
< The Majorcan believes in manana (tomorrow). Take a pair of shoes to be mended, and if he does not have them ready when you return, there is always manawa. There are factories that manufacture custom-made shoes, but many of these kind and friendly islanders prefer theirs made by the cobbler. They do not mind waiting for them. For them, too, there is always a 'mafiana.
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