Awake!, October 22, 1956

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A WORLD WITHOUT WORRY

It is near at hand’

Choosing a President

In the ILS., politics till November

Explosion in Cali

A resident of this Colombian city reports the violence and horror of the blast

The Truth About Halloween

A pa^an celebration

THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL

News sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital issues of our times must be‘unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. "Awake 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 does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.

“Awake I” uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on all continents, in Scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on-the-scenes reports come to you through these columns. This journal’s viewpoint is not narrow, but is international. It is read in many nations, in many languages, by persons of all ages. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural wonders—why, its coverage is as broad as the earth and as high as the heavens.

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

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

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CONTENTS

Who Taught Them Morals?

Religious Killings

A World Without Worry

Can You Read Two Thousand Words

The Medical Term “Shock”

a Minute?

Explosion in Cali

Atomic Plenty

Search for Bridey Murphy Ends

“Your Word Is Truth”

Strongest Creatures on Earth

The Truth About Halloween

Choosing a President

Jehovah’s Witnesses Preach in All

Spotlight on Youth

the Earth—Trinidad

Where Healing Becomes Killing

Do You Know?

Germs Are Complicated

Watching the World

THEM

TAUGHT

WERE you shocked by the May 26

Reuters news dispatch that quoted an American field chaplain in Germany as saying: “About a quarter of the troops live with German girls”? Or were you amazed by German Justice Minister Fritz Neu-mayer’s statement last June 6 that at least 67,753 illegitimate children have been fathered by Allied soldiers since 1945— 37,000 of them by Americans?

Did you know that in Korea the 10,000 members of the Seoul Prostitutes’ Union call themselves the “Yang-Ki-Bals” (Yankee belles), and that a military chaplain recently reported that “by conservative estimate more than nine out of ten of the American servicemen marrying Japanese girls live with them as man and wife during the period of so-called courtship”? Do you remember reading that Carl F. Yaeger told the National Lutheran Council about the “appalling moral practices" among American soldiers overseas, and did you know that the sale of women brings $85 million a year in foreign exchange to Japan

—ten times what the tourist trade does?

But whatever land is involved, do the words “Christian nations” strike your mind? And do the proud figures of increasing church membership pass before your eyes as you read these reports?

When the children of a town cannot read, people look at its schools; when men leave the kind of moral record described above, it is time to look at their churches. Alson J. Smith, writing in The Christian Century, called for an urgent and immediate “program of preinduction education in health and human relations for teen-age people.” But why not just teach them -real Christianity?

It is plain that they have not been taught real Christianity. Often army chaplains make pointed statements about this. Chaplain George H. Birney said: “I often say to my fellow chaplains that our churches have failed. My Catholic colleagues deny this most emphatically. The church as they conceive it cannot have failed; the people have failed the church. As one Catholic associate used to tell the new men of our unit in his orientation lecture, ‘Two-thirds of all the Catholics in this regiment are going to hell as fast as they can go.’ But

OCTOBER sr, 19SS

so far as he was concerned, it was not the church’s fault."

He continues: "We Protestants, it seems to me, dhn be more realistic. I am convinced that this immorality is our fault and that it is high time we admitted our guilt .■ . . We have raised a generation which is biblically, theologically and morally illiterate. And that is the fault of the churches."—The Christian Century, January 11,1956.

Chaplain Birney’s charge is serious. But the most serious thing about it is that it is true. Today’s generation in general does not know the Bible, ft does not know doctrines, and many of its church members flagrantly disregard morals. Despite the beauty of their buildings, today’s churches really have not stood up for the high principles of Christianity. They have become community centers and places for personal advancement, rather than places that require sacrifice and service. They ignore the morals of their members and permit immoral persons to remain in their midst.

True Christianity, however, cannot do this. It cannot be blind to such conditions. It is told: “Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.’’ And: "Quit mixing in company with anyone called a brother that is a fornicator or a greedy person or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man." Today’s churches ignore that command completely!—-1 Corinthians 5:13, 11, New World Trans.

Chaplain Birney calls for reforms: “First, we must strengthen our preaching program. ... It is a time for calling a spade a spade. We must step up our evangelistic emphasis. We must get commitments for Christ. . . - And we must teach our people what it means to be Christian, Let’s rediscover the Bible as a source book for sermons. Let’s challenge sin with Christ’s own weapon—the eternal gospel. More specifically, let's make plans to train our churches In the inoral law.”

Does that sound like a proposal to return to Christianity? That is what it would amount to. Christ called a spade a spade. He and his disciples certainly had evangelistic emphasis. He stirred multitudes to follow him. He showed them what it means to be Christian. He preached from the Sacred Scriptures. And he certainly trained his followers in a strict moral law. But today’s churches have not followed Christ in these respects. The apathy of their members shows that their preaching program is weak, their evangelistic emphasis is inferior, their members’ knowledge is limited and their use of the Bible insufficient.

Will the churches change? The revolution that is needed has not yet become evident. Christ would rise up in indignation at these conditions; his real followers would be expected to do the same. But today’s churches have not done so.

True religion must demand right morals. It cannot wink at fornication. Instead, it must expel from its midst anyone who refuses to live up to the Bible’s right moral principles. The Bible says of the man who knows the Christian moral principles and refuses to abide by them: “Hand such a man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh."—1 Corinthians 5:5, New World Trans.

True Christianity must follow that command. If it is not followed in your church, then it is time to look around for a people who do follow it.

You think there is no such group today? Oh, but there is! They are the people who provided you with this magazine. Find them and become convinced that these witnesses of Jehovah do follow true Christian principles, do maintain high moral standards, and actually will expel from their midst anyone who refuses to conform to such right principles.

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this ^vorld worries about tamor-fow i> no reoion to worry w'jh it BflCOute iM* world is going into U A«5

reason to go with it Start wOuy-Fr*& living new by looming about the ntw wo'fd.

HlS^is an age of worry. Though no one likes to worry, most people worry.

Many persons seem to do little else but worry. Some are chronic worriers, who often make life miserable for others. The peoples of all nations are oppressed by worries. How to break out of the bondage of worry? Mere psychological tricks bring no lasting relief. There must be a sure way. There is. Almighty God has purposed to bring in a whole new world, a world without worry.

But before we learn of God’s way to relieve mankind of worry, we should know some things about worry, especially why it is now at its peak of intensity. Worry is an uneasy feeling, an anxious feeling, a troubled feeling. Worry drives away peace of mind; worry brings in a disturbed condition of mind. Yet, instead of learning about God’s sure way to unburden mankind from worry, masses of people are turning to materialism, hoping that the possession of things will bring them some peace of mind. Is materialism lifting the web of worry that has enveloped mankind?

Listen to the dean of Columbia University’s Psychoanalytic Clinic, who said last

March 17: "Wellveinan age of enormously Increasing anxiety, despite the fact that *we’ve never : had it so good?” Yes, politicians may tell the people that they never had it so good, and people may have more in a material way than at any other time. Yet worry keeps on increasing enormously.

Oddly enough, the quest for happiness and peace of mind through possessions has brought more worries, new worries. Why, in Amer-

ica, now enjoying a high degree ■ of prosperity, an insight into the state of the public mind is given by best-seller lists. What books have sold best? The Search for Bridey Murphy and The Power of Positive Thinking.

No, materialism is no remedy for worry. In fact, it only hounds people with a new worry, for in an age of prosperity few persons dare not seem prosperous. Many worry continuously lest their neighbors acquire better possessions. The persons who have turned to material things for peace of mind, making money their love, "have stabbed themselves all over with many pains.” Wealth is not the way to a tranquil mind: "A rich man may buy off his life: a poor man can ignore the robber’s threat?’ “The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.”—1 Timothy 6:10, New World Trans.; Proverbs 13:8, Moffatt; Ecclesiastes 5:12.

One of the signs that all kinds of people, rich and poor alike, are worrying more than ever before is the increase in bruxism —the unconscious grinding and clenching

of the teeth. Recently, at the thirty-first annual Greater New York Dental Meeting, Dr. Thomas E. J. Shanahan reported that bruxlsm usually develops from worry and tension. The crux of the matter, Dr. Shanahan reported, is worry. In this respect, he said, no members of modem society are found to be free from the damage.

Bible Foretells Age of Worry

But why is there so much worry today? The reason is clear to those who go to God's Word,, the Bible. This book alone shows that we are living in the last days of the Devil’s world. None other than the Lord Jesus Christ foretold that this time of the “end of the world” would be the most worrisome in all history. For this day the Son of God foretold there would be "upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.”—Luke 21:25, 26.

Since 1914 we have been living in this age of worry foretold by the Son of God. Now nations worry lest they fall behind in the arms race. People worry as talk of atomic tests, radioactive fall-out and possible casualties increases. Recently a United States general excited more worry throughout the world when he said that hundreds of millions of people, including a great many in friendly countries, would be killed in event of an all-out nuclear attack, on the Soviet Union. The more people look into the future the more they worry. This unparalleled state of worry in the world, Jesus shows, is one of the evidences that God will soon bring in a world without worry. Jesus’ prophecy at Matthew chapter twenty-four shows that this generation will not pass away until God’s world without worry is brought in.

Before a new world can be brought in this old world must be destroyed. God will do that at his war of Armageddon. At this war, to be fought in heaven and on earth, God will destroy this system of things, ending forever the oppressive rule of imperfect human governments.

Describing Christ Jesus leading God’s heavenly armies to battle at Armageddon, the Bible says: "The armies that were in heaven were following him on white horses, and they were clothed in white, clean, fine linen. And. out of his mouth there protrudes a sharp long sword, that he may smite the nations with it, and he will shepherd them with a rod of iron.”—Revelation 19:14, 15, New World Trans.

All Worries End

The shepherding of the nations by Christ Jesus with a rod of iron means their destruction. This crushing of the nations will remove the source of countless worries. No oppressive governments, no totalitarian rulers, no iron curtains, no arms races, no wars. Never, never more will mothers worry over losing their young sons on the battlefield, for there will be no battlefields, no military schools, no soldiers. Concerning those who survive Armageddon into God’s new world, the Bible says: “They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for destruction; for they are a race of the Lord’s blessed ones, and their offspring shall remain with them.”—Isaiah 65:23, An Amer, Trans.

Nor will mothers ever need to worry that their children will fall into the hands of kidnapers or other evildoers. For Armageddon will have rooted out all the wicked from the earth. "Yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; though you look hard at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall possess the land, and rejoice in abundant prosperity.” (Psalm 37: 10, 11, An Amer. Trans.) Wherever one may look in God's new world one will find no trace of jails, prisons or a policeman’s

uniform or any other signs of a worrisome society, such as iron bars on windows, locks on doors or peepholes in doors. How serene the sleep of those who live in God's new world!

Even when children in God’s new world play with the animal creation, parents will not need to worry. No fear either that a wild animal will carry off a child! Instead the child will lead the animal. Nor will anyone worry that a creeping thing of the ground will sting a child; instead children will play with the reptiles of the field. Concerning this worry-free, harmless peace between man and animals the Bible says: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; . . . and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.” —Isaiah 11:6-9, Am. Stan. Ver.

Today people worry over what they are going to eat and where they are going to live. But in Jehovah’s new world none of such worries will ever plague mankind, for commercialism will not take root in the new world and the word “landlord” will be no more. Jehovah promises: “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat.”—Isaiah 65:17, 21, 22.

With these blessed conditions prevailing in the new world, what worries could exist ? Will people worry over health? Will they worry over the peril of heart trouble and cancer? Will they worry over Jerfrfcn foods, lest they contain something harmful? No, never! Not even death will be a worry then. Death must be destroyed and pain must pass away. Declares Jehovah's sure Word of prophecy: “He will destroy on this mountain the veil that veils all the peoples, and the web that is woven over all the nations; he will destroy death forever.” The Christian apostle John confirmed that this will be the worry-free state of the new world when he wrote under inspiration: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away.,.. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away.” That means all worries end. —Isaiah 25:7, 8, An Amer. Trans.; Revelation 21:1, 3, 4, New World Trans.

But wait. Will there be need for worry over any possibility of losing these conditions? No, the security of the inhabitants of the new world is sure. Never again life insurance, property insurance or any other kind of insurance. Jehovah’s Word is sufficient insurance: “The bow, the sword, and war I will break off from the land; and I will make them lie down in security.” “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain.”—Hosea 2:18, An Amer, Trans.; Isaiah 66:22, Am. Stan. Ver,

Stop Worrying Now!

Why not begin to live for God’s new world now? Yes, why not begin to stop worrying now? It can be done. The New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses is proof that it can be done. The New World society take to heart Jesus’ command. What command? Not to worry about the future when we see the world flooded

with worries. Concerning the worrisome conditions to mark the “last days” of this world, Jesus declared: “As these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.”—Luke 21:28, New World Trans.

Knowing for a certainty that God’s war of Armageddon will, during this generation, make way for a world without worry, we can heed the Lord Jesus’ words: “Do not worry about tomorrow.”—Matthew 6:34, An Amer. Trans.

Right now begin dispelling worry. Drive worry away with the peace of mind that comes, not from materialism or psychology, but from a sure knowledge and understanding of God’s Word. Then “the peace of God that excels all thought will guard your hearts and your mental powers by means of Christ Jesus.” So powerful is this “peace of God” that it excels all thought, conquering even worrisome thought, enabling the true Christian to heed the apostle’s injunction: “Do not be anxious over anything.”—Philippians 4:7, 6, New World Trans.

To gain this “peace of God” associate henceforth with the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses. It is the only organization on earth today that is bringing the peoples of all nations this new-world hope. Meet with Jehovah’s witnesses. Accept their offer to come even to your homes and take up a home Bible study with you, and so learn more of these truths that dispel worry. Let these new-world truths flood your mind and heart Do this now. Put yourself in line to survive Armageddon. Then see this age of war and worry give way to an everlasting age of peace and tranquillity.

The medical Term “Shock”

HEN doctors speak of “shock” they are not referring to a pile of sheaves of grain; neither do they mean a sudden jolt, agitation or surprise. No, the medical use of the term denotes: “A state of profound depression of the vital processes resulting from wounds, hemorrhage, crushing injuries, etc.” —Webster.

<L Shock results when the vital organs do not receive enough blood to maintain health. The outward manifestations are a cold, clammy and pale skin, mental dullness, physical weakness, very low blood pressure and a fast but "thready” pulse. What causes this condition helps us to appreciate how wonderfully the Creator made man’s circulatory system. In the state of health a certain volume of blood courses through the blood vessels and a certain blood pressure is maintained, provided that the heart beats at a certain rate and the blood vessels have a certain capacity.

C, Should the blood volume suddenly be reduced, as by wounds and especially burns, the body would at once compensate in three ways: liver, spleen and other blood storers pour into the stream the extra supplies of blood they have on hand, the blood vessels are contracted to make a smaller supply of blood reach farther, and the heart action is speeded up, both processes being triggered by the sympathetic nervous system.

C However, all this can go only to a certain point. When the blood loss goes beyond the capacity of these other organs to compensate, “shock” is the result, and if it goes beyond that, death ensues. Of course, should chemical, nervous or mental factors interfere with the operation of any of the three factors involved, the result would be the same. Shock has therefore been aptly described as being due to "a disparity between the size of the intravascular space, the amount of circulating fluid volume within the space, and the degree of blood pressure applied to that volume by the heart muscle.”—Seminar, Summer 1956.

QERSONALLY, I heard no noise, no sound. I was suddenly wide awake and saw a huge flash of light all over the city from the window of my bedroom. In the deathlike hush that followed voices began to call. "Get under the bed, I believe it’s an earthquake,” said one. “I've got glass in my mouth!” cried another.

We rose quickly and, partly dressed, proceeded across fallen Venetianblinds and broken glass from the window out into the hall. The couple from the next room came out at the same time. Downstairs a surprise greeted our eyes: The front door, which was very strong, hinged in three places and double-locked and braced, had been blown completely across the room as if by a mighty hand.

A quick check revealed that all the windows in the house were broken, even though they have steel frames, and in some places they were almost pulled from the wall. Large chunks of cement and hundreds of pieces of broken glass were scattered over beds and floors and were imbedded in the opposite wall. The upstairs ceilings were cracked and some began to sag. A hole in the roof was large enough to crawl through.

What had happened?

Someone in the house looked out the back window and called to us. A huge column of fire was reaching hundreds of feet into the air. It rose from the vicinity of the army station on Calle 25 with

Carrera 1. Perhaps there is more ammunition there and other explosions will take place! So thinking, we dressed more completely so as to be more presentable and came back downstairs where we would be safer. No one was hurt except for a few cuts from flying glass or a bump on the head from pieces of concrete. Seeing the neighbors in the street, we gathered with them to try to learn what had happened. It is doubtful if the complete story will ever be known.

According to conversation that was going around within a few minutes after the explosion, a caravan of trucks loaded with some kind of high explosives was parked at the army station and had exploded. The president, Rojas Pinilla, referred to the trucks in his address in Cali later, but did not explain. The number of trucks that exploded does not appear certain, although it has been reported as six. Although the explosive was generally referred to as dynamite, the. impression of many present is that the explosion was of something more powerful, such as nitroglycerin. For example, people in the section were covered with a black, greaselike substance after the explosion that washed off somewhat like grease.

The Damage and Casualties

People were awakened some thirty kilometers away. Our house, damaged as referred to above, was some ten blocks away. A piece of the chassis of a truck

fell through the roof of another house on our street.

At the point of explosion a crater appeared some 30 feet deep and nearly 200 feet long. The army building housing some 320 soldiers was completely demolished, only the bare steel skeleton left standing in twisted, grotesque shapes. Of the soldiers, only two were left. The others had literally disappeared.

From twojo four blocks in every direction there was total destruction. For many blocks, buildings must be rebuilt completely, not repaired. The house of an artist some eight blocks away almost collapsed. The cathedral in the center of Cali, seventeen blocks away, had its windows blown out and damage was done to the bishop’s house adjoining, It is almost impossible to go anywhere in Cali without seeing the effect of the explosion. At the Universidad del Valle, completely on the other side of town and some fifty-five blocks away, heavy glass doors framed in steel were broken by the same shock waves of destruction.

By daylight some sense of order was felt, yet oppression and death hung heavily over the city. A haze from the great fires hung low and the unceasing whine of the fire and police sirens continued, even into the next night, before there was any letup. Police, soldiers and firemen battled valiantly along with volunteer workers of the Red Cross, doctors, nurses and officials of the city.

Only official cars and rescue trucks or equipment were allowed in the danger section of the city. Literally thousands of people flocked to the area, making rescue operations more difficult, some looking for friends or loved ones, but mostly just out of curiosity. In a borrowed car I drove in the parts where I was permitted, to check on the safety of friends. Every street was covered with broken glass and other debris.

Even yet ft is impossible to state the number of dead and wounded. By August 11, 1,500 'were reported dead unofficially. The number authorized to be released was 1,097, although still unofficial. The official numbed of identified dead was 351. Between Tuesday and Wednesday some 544 bodies and parts of bodies were buried in a common grave, many of whom, naturally, were not identified. When one considers the fact that, of the soldiers who were destroyed in the building nearest the explosion, most will be unidentified and perhaps for a great part not found, it can be seen that the number of dead is very high. The number of wounded has been put at 1,800 to 2,000; but, again, people in private homes many blocks away generally dressed their own minor wounds and went about the work of reconstruction without reporting their injuries.

The cemetery just across the railroad, some two to four blocks away, with somewhat over 5,000 vaults, had over 90 percent of the vaults damaged by the explosion, according to the man in charge. Nevertheless, he states that no bodies came out of them as was at first reported.

The Cause

What caused the explosion? In his first message to Cali the president hinted that the explosion was caused by his enemies in an act of sabotage. Later, however, when he was here personally, he reversed this statement by saying that he did not think that even his enemies would stoop so low. Some religious leaders, as might be expected from false religion, have blamed God, stating that this is punishment because some of that section was a bad section. These men fail to explain why their main church, the cathedral, and the bishop’s own house were damaged also, even though they are some seventeen blocks

away. Also many other churches were damaged.

The general consensus seems to be that it was simply an accident made by a stupid error. If it was just an accident, the people of Cali want to know who is to blame. Who permitted official trucks, loaded with such deadly cargo, to be parked in a city overnight, and on a public street at that? Why was not an order given to park them in some isolated place in the country, as must be done with private loads of dynamite?

That knowledge was had of the danger is shown by the prevailing public opinion that the caravan was ordered moved twice from two other places before it finally parked for the night on Calle 25. Who should be held responsible for the great loss suffered, both personally in the case of the many dead and wounded and financially in the case of the businessmen in the section? This latter loss is estimated at well over 100,000,000 pesos, or roughly some 25,000,000 dollars.

These are questions that will be asked for a long time to come and questions for which the people of Call deserve an an swer. The answer, however, appears to be Slow in coming.

Another interesting point is the time of the explosion. First radio announcements and others gave the time as about 1:07 a.m. or 1:10 a.m. Later, government bulletins gave the time as 1:25. In fact, there is much about the explosion in Cali that needs to be explained. Generally speaking, the ordinary person has been told that an explosion took place in Cali—and this he already knew. When, why and of what, have not been successfully answered as yet.

Cali is still nervous. All the people can talk about is the explosion, even though calm has returned and good order prevailed from the first. Some have had paralysis strokes, heart failures and other infirmities, apparently as an aftermath.

Nevertheless, there is one group of people who are talking about something else. Jehovah’s witnesses in Cali continue preaching about Jehovah's new world of righteousness, where even explosions will be a thing of the past.

Secutclt jot M/uAplty finds

<L Much publicity was given to The Search for Bridey Murphy. a best-seller written by a hypnotist to try to prove the pagan doctrine of reincarnation. The author hypnotized Ruth Simmons, a Colorado housewife whose real name is Virginia Tighe. He elicited from her seeming evidence of a nineteenth-century Ireland existence. Not much publicity was given recently to the end of the search for Brldey Murphy. In Chicago Pastor Wally White of a church Virginia Tighe attended in her youth checked on Bridey’s story. The articles he wrote for the Chicago American revealed that, as a child, Virginia lived across the street from Bridie Murphy Corkell. Virginia knew Bridie well and liked her. Virginia’s early life, Preacher White disclosed, agreed in detail after detail with the book’s so-called reincarnation story. Thus The Search for Bridey Murphy was, as Awake! magazine of May 8, 1956, said of it, “a search for nonsense.”

In Birmingham, Alabama, an eight-point bnck deer called J‘R.omeo” broke through a fence in a park. The buck escaped lust after his mate gave birth to their fifth set of twins.

Strongest Creatures on Earth

■■NCE upon a time, according to a 111 fable, a lion and a man were traveling together. Both were talking boastfully. By the roadside stood a block of stone on which was carved the image of a man throttling a lion. The man pointed a sly finger at it and said to his companion: "You see, ^e men are stronger than you.” A smile flickered on the lion’s face. “If lions knew how to carve,” said he, “you would often see a man with a lion on top of him.” <

gt; Looking at it from the physical standpoint, the lion had a point. Many men admit that the swipe of a lion’s paw would make a human heavyweight champion look puny. Some even say that the blow of a lion’s paw is the hardest in nature. But there are other claimants. A polar bear would gladly enter the ring in a contest for nature’s heavyweight championship. With one sweeping stroke of its paw a polar bear can lift a seal out of the water and land it stunned on an ice floe. That is a punch that should make any heavyweight contender swell with confidence!

Other bears, of course, would object to putting the crown on the polar bear.

the the

Almost unbelievable is the strength of black bears. According to the owner of a private zoo, a large bear in Its death flurry has been known to seize a 500-pound wooden block and hurl it through the roof of a cabin. The grizzly bear thinks nothing of carrying a 200-pound deer under its arm. In times past men have arranged fights between grizzly bears and bulls. More than once men saw the bull's neck cracked with very first blow of the grizzly’s mighty paw.

But whether a bear would come off victorious against a gorilla is some- ♦

thing else. In its hands a gorilla can break a thick branch, a * lion’s forearm or a leopard’s neck. Frightened gorillas have i bent two-inch steel bars.

The reptiles also have claimants for the crown. Zestfully the alligator will test his jaw strength on other contestants. In the alligator’s jaw a large turtle’s hard shell is crushed as if it were paper. A 120-pound crocodile in France exerted a pressure between its jaws of 1,540 pounds! Giant pythons, if well anchored, can make a young elephant look helpless.

But a full-grown elephant probably thinks itself entitled to be crowned as king of nature’s heavyweights. In some countries elephants are used to haul logs to a river. In Burma one elephant pulled a load of four tons— no trifling feat, considering the absence of wheels.

‘ft With its 40,000-odd muscles, the elephant’s trunk is enormously powerful. With it an elephant can lift a man like a matchstick and catapult him 120 feet. In South Africa a man once came upon the skeleton of a large crocodile high and dry fourteen feet in a riverbank tree.

He questioned the Africans and learned the story: The crocodile had had the temerity to seize, of all things, the trunk of a drinking elephant. Enraged, the elephant trampled the crocodile to death, hurling it high up into the tree!

■g But to crown the elephant without seeing a whale in action would be a mistake. The blue whale, after all, is more than a hundred feet long and weighs well over a hundred tons. An elephant by comparison is a mere pygmy of about five tons. The blue whale's pulling strength has been estimated at 400 horsepower. “A female blue whale,” writes Ivan Sandersen in Living Mammals of the World, "once pulled a twin-screw, steel-hulled, ninetyfoot whale-chaser with her engines going full « speed astern, forward at an aver* age speed of five knots for eight and a half hours, despite the fact that there was a quarterton harpoon embedded in the animal’s back.” What tremendous pulling power is packed into the huge body of the blue whale!

A HUNDRED and thirty-five million radios, plus nearly forty million television sets are resounding with the great debate over who will be the next president of the United States. Both parties are pressing every effort toward getting their views accepted. The public gets an insight into the intricate workings of the American system, and the eyes of the world focus on the selection of the next president of the United States.

The actual choosing of the candidates started long ago, but their final selection really occurred at the Republican and Democratic conventions held during August. The conventions were as different as the problems they faced. The Democratic convention was a place of turbulent uproar, and in the end there was an appearance of good fellowship all round. In comparison, the Republican meeting was a “kind of respectable trance” that came to life only with tile arrival of its one and only choice for the nomination, President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The Democrats

Have Their Day

The Democratic convention was by far the best TV fare, as far as the home viewers were concerned.

In the keynote address Tennessee’s 36-year-old Governor Frank Clement cried against the party in power: “How long, O how long shall these Republican outrages endure? How tong, O how long will Americans permit the national welfare to be pounced upon at home and gambled abroad? How long, O how long will Republican roustabouts engage in a sideshow scramble for power and privilege?”.

“Rise up as one man,” he said, “and smite down those money-changers who have invaded and violated the people’s temple of justice.” He spoke of “corruption in high places, involving an unprecedented spree of giveaways, grab and greed.” And he called to the farmer: “Come on home before it’s too late. Your lands are studded with the white skulls and crossbones of broken Republican promises.”

But the Democratic disagreement was not just with the Republicans, but also among themselves. When Adiai E. Stevenson seemed far in the lead on prospective votes, former Democratic president Harry S. Truman made a spectacular announcement that he was backing Stevenson’S opponent, Averell Harriman, governor of New York. He said that this is no time for trial-and-error leadership, and that

Harriman’s experience would be best The New York Times said Truman '.‘came deliberately to take control of the Democratic party away from Adlai E. Stevenson,” but that he had apparently mistaken his popularity for power.

Would Stevenson ride out the Truman crisis successfully? To many professional politicians Stevenson is an intellectual. Though his goals are similiar to, his manners and methods are almost the direct opposite of Truman’s. Some people think this is to his advantage, but certainly Truman and his friends do not.

I'ruman’s opposition failed and Stevenson wound up with a resounding first-ballot victory: 905$ votes to Harriman’s 210! Perhaps Stevenson could even be thankful to Truman. He came out a stronger candidate as a result of the fight. One Stevenson adviser said: "We took a sock in the nose from Harry Truman and found out it didn’t hurt at all.” Time added: “On the convention’s final night, Harry Truman walked down the ramp to the platform, faced the delegates—and ate crow as though it were squab. Adlai Stevenson, he said to tumultuous applause, was indeed a fighter, because ‘he’s given some of us here a pretty good licking.’ ”

Stevenson’s acceptance speech laid out his plans. He said we stand “on the threshold of a great, decisive era,” in an “America where poverty is abolished and our abundance is used to enrich the lives of every family” through government action.

But what about the vice-presidential candidate? Who would he be? Stevenson left that entirely up to the delegates, without a word about his personal choice. Would it be smiling, hand-shaking Senator Kefauver of Tennessee? young Senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts, or Tennessee’s Albert Gore? On the first ballot Kefauver, who had withdrawn from the presidential candidate race in favor of Stevenson, polled 483$ votes, Kennedy 304, Gore 178. On the second ballot Kennedy surged ahead, but* when he was just 38| votes short of the nomination, Gore withdrew in favor of Kefauver. Oklahoma switched to Kefauver, Minnesota swung solidly behind him—the stage was set, and Kefauver won the nomination with a final count of 755J to Kennedy’s 589.

.* . And the Republicans Have Tkeirs

In sharp contrast with the Democratic convention’s excitement, all seemed serene at the Republican gathering. Huge demonstrations were planned to/'erupt spontaneously at a given signal,” but a little more drama would have brightened up the enthusiasm, at least of the TV audience at home. The Republicans’ convention was four days instead of the Democrats' five, but, even so, their choice of candidate was so obvious that they seemed to be suffering an embarrassment of time.

In the Republican keynote speech, balding, blue-eyed Arthur Lanjdie, governor of Washington, answered Democratic charges and raised a few of his own. He said the Democrats had “left us a staggering national debt, a greatly reduced value of the dollar, a colossal bureaucracy and vastly increased taxes.” He said: “The Democratic party was responsible for the security of our country and of the free world precisely when Communist world aggression achieved its maximum success, when the nations of Eastern Europe were lost to freedom and when, on another continent, China became part of the Communist empire.”

His own party, he contended, has “done more than just talk about peace; we have worked for it.” Other points of his address: “Under the new Republican laws in the first six months of 1956 average farm prices steadied and then went up. They are still going up.” “Our policies have

sustained over 66 million peacetime jobs for American men and women at the highest wages in our history?’ “We have witnessed the greatest gains for civil rights over a period of 80 years.” “We have checked the runaway inflation we inherited from the previous administration. We have reduced taxes,” The American people, he said, will "throw the Republicans out of office the day when, if ever, they copy the Democrats and put the party first and America second,”

The real life came into the convention, however, with the arrival of President Eisenhower. His position of party leadership was obvious, and his renomination as his party’s candidate was unquestioned. Big issues, like isolationism, that formerly split the Republicans seem to melt under his personal power. And his acceptance speech lifted his policies toward a bold future.

With the theme “I hold that man is in the right who is most closely in league with the future,” he said: “Today I want to demonstrate the truth of a single proposition: the Republican party is the party of the future. . . . For this reason [they] will be decisively approved in 1956.” He envisioned a tomorrow when the pain of crippling disease would be vastly reduced, when political wisdom would ensure justice and harmony, and when man could enjoy “the full realization of all the good things in the world.”

Despite certain opposition, only a flat last-minute turndown by President Eisenhower would have prevented Vice-President Nixon from being renominated as the Republican candidate for that post No such turndown was expected; none came. Nixon’s nomination was unanimous. He said the Republicans were running on the record of the Eisenhower administration with its belief “in human welfare but not the welfare state,” and in social gains but not the socializing, federalizing or nationalizing of basic American institutions.

Analysis

The platforms of both political parties look to the future and spell out major responsibilities. In a direct switch from the 1952 campaign, the Democrats are saying it is time for a change, while the Republicans are the ones who are saying: “You never had it so good.” The Democratic campaign is based on charges of “betrayal” of natural resources, attacks on the farm program, on foreign policy, and on VicePresident Nixon. The Republican campaign, on the other hand, is based on the “peace and prosperity” slogan, and on their exceptionally popular candidate, President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Thus, the United States now finds itself in the midst of charges and countercharges as it follows the twisting, bumpy road that leads to November 6—the date on which the people will decide which candidate will be the next president of the United States,

TP at the Conventions

<L Though TV equipment and men got thoroughly in the way of news reporters at the recent U.S. political conventions, the newsmen also used TV to excellent advantage in informing the public of what had happened. The first United Press bulletin on Truman’s endorsement of Averell Harriman came from a rewrite of a TV broadcast. When Eleanor Roosevelt’s speech was hard to hear in the hall newsmen watched it on TV. When the New York Times published its table of how the states voted, it had taken the information from the TV broadcasts. The bright lights often were in the way of the news reporters, but often TV also provided the fastest service to the news-gathering organizations.

Boricflre

C, An Associated Press dispatch from Long Beach, California, recently told about a little boy who made trouble for his mother. Hie boy's effort to thwart discipline backfired. Said the report: “'Are you a cop?* a childish voice on the telephone asked Jim Terry, a juvenile officer. Terry said he was. Well, my mother told me she's going to spank me/ the voice said, 'so I told her Td call the cops and tell them about her threat/ Terry asked the boy to put his mother on. Tve never been so embarrassed/ she said. ‘He’s only seven and full of mischief/ 'Lady/ said the policeman, T have only one suggestion: Spank him/ The lady obligingly left the phone off the hook while she followed the advice and Terry heard the windup, with sound effects/’

Who It Delinquent?

C In Los Angeles, California, Superior Court Judge William B. Neely, opening a child wel* fare conference, had this to say about juvenile delinquency: “When an adult behaves like a juvenile, we simply call him adolescent. But when a juvenile acts like some adults he sees, we call him a delinquent/'

*Wot a Tragedy of Y^ihr'

<L The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently put out its annual Uniform Crime Reports for 1955. Major crimes, it showed, passed the 2,000,000-mark for the fourth year. Crime has grown 26 percent since 1950, but population has gone up only 9 percent. Arrests of $ young people under 18 soared by 11 percent X in the 1,162 cities studied. In 1,477 major cities, X 42 percent of those arrested for major crimes £ were under 18; almost half were under 15. X Most of the crimes were robbery, burglary, X larceny and auto theft; but rape, manslaugh-$ ter and murder were not unknown. FBI chief $ J. Edgar Hoover said the report was “sad” X and commented: “This is not a tragedy of $ youth, but of grownups, too many of whom £ have wandered into a morass of disbelief . . . X a place where they have no faith, no belief i* in a Supreme Being, no belief in the liberty £ of the individual, no belief in the dignity of man and, finally, no belief in themselves/'

Red Poland’^ “New Samel Man”

J* </ The Communist government of Poland has long followed the blueprint made in Moscow Y for molding the minds of children. The result? X Recent newspaper articles in Poland tell of an $ alarming number of delinquent youtha dti-zens report insults on the streets. Holdups by

X youths are frequent. Many complaints are jt* about youths' showing little respect for elders, teachers or for authority. Gangs of children

X have gone from pranks to crime. Press re-$ ports spotlight an Increase in drinking among children; youthful drunks are common. One $ regime newspaper said that 15-year-olds all v over Poland are drinking and soon become -j- habitual drunkards, dangerous to the com-X munity. According to the complaints of the 4* Polish Communists, their “new Soviet man” •;* is the hoodlum.

PSYCHIATRY THE WORLD'S OLDEST PROFESSION?

<1 Yale University anthropologist George Peter Murdock has concluded that psychiatry, not prostitution, is the world’s oldest profession. He says that professional prostitutes are rare in primitive societies, while the medicine man is universal. A leading news magazine explained that the medicine man “usually leaves the practice of physical medicine to old men or women who become specialists as herbalists or bonesetters. The true medicine man, says Murdock, confines his practice to curing the ills of the mind. . . . From this, Murdock considers it a short, logical step ‘to regard the medicine man as the lineal ancestor not of the physician but of the psychiatrist/ Modern sophisticates who speak jokingly of their psychoanalysts as 'witch doctors’ are closer to the mark than they think.”—Time, February 11,1952.

Boricflre

C, An Associated Press dispatch from Long Beach, California, recently told about a little boy who made trouble for his mother. Hie boy's effort to thwart discipline backfired. Said the report: “'Are you a cop?* a childish voice on the telephone asked Jim Terry, a juvenile officer. Terry said he was. 'Well, my mother told me she's going to spank me/ the voice said, 'so I told her Td call the cops and tell them about her threat/ Terry asked the boy to put his mother on. Tve never been so embarrassed/ she said. ‘He’s only seven and full of mischief/ 'Lady/ said the policeman, T have only one suggestion: Spank him/ The lady obligingly left the phone off the hook while she followed the advice and Terry heard the windup, with sound effects/’

Who It Delinquent?

*Wot a Tragedy of Y^ihr'

Red Poland’^ “New Samel Man”

X youths are frequent. Many complaints are jt* about youths' showing little respect for elders, teachers or for authority. Gangs of children

Ancestor of the psychiatrist

people by laying on of hands. Here Is one of such cases where a believer in Christianity killed a person in an attempt to save him miraculously by prayer, but who became an object of public rebuke.

"Shin Yung-Hi, eldest daughter of Han Sung-Hwa, 185 Yongdungpo Dong, Seoul, 28 years of age, has been a mental patient for some time. Her mother, hearing of the rumor that some pastor can heal by offering prayer and by treating the sick portion of the body, requested Lee Soon-Ryae, 38 years, 447 Yangpyung Dong, Seoul, who is a steward of the Sae-ma-ul Presbyterian Church, to come and 'heal my daughter’s disease by prayer* on August 23rd at 12:00 p.m. Accepting this request, the steward, believing that God heals even handicapped ones when prayer is offered, sat on Miss Shin’s stomach and rubbed and beat her chest and cheeks from 1:00 p.m. to 5 p.m. The patient Anally died from suffocation. Instead of a miracle she lost her life. The steward was immediately arrested by Yongdungpo police for suspicion of unpremeditated murder.”

Still more forceful with his massage is Lee Sun-Boon in Kanghwa, Korea, who massages with his fists. Seoul Sinmoon in its issue of September 8, 1955, headlined "Healing Turns to Murder,” and then went on to say: "A fanatic Christian believer who believed in ‘healing any kind of sickness if prayer is offered to God’ murdered a young woman attempting to heal her sickness.

"According to the information rendered by the 7th Security Bureau a church in Kyo Dong, Kanghwa-kun, sponsored a revival preaching assembly on August 9th. Then a believer, Lee Sun-Boon, saying that ‘any kind of disease could be cured if a prayer is offered to God and if massage is given to the body as treatment,’ invited Kim Sung-Boon, 22, who has been insane for about one year, and beat her body with his fists for one week. Consequently she died from internal hemorrhage and contusion on the 19th of this same month. This incident was not discovered until recently. Kanghwa police station arrested Lee on suspicion of unpremeditated murder on 4th of this month.”

Later, the same newspaper, Seoul Sin-moon, on September 28, 1955, reported that in a similar case in Pochun at a revival of the Pochun Presbyterian Church, where a victim died, the prosecutor was threatened with a letter from friends of the three persons who had been arrested. The letter seemed to indicate the death of one person was not important and, "in spite of the fact that so many people were cured by the laying on of hands, why does the prosecutor view the matter only scientifically without consideration of what God has done in the past?” Later 50 of the believers forced their way into the courtroom where the suspects were being questioned. By implication these "faith-healers” would allow God a batting average and would expect Him to strike out part of the time.

In Boryung, Korea, the "massaging" took the form of choking. As reported by the Kyung-Hyang newspaper of October 2, 1955: "Again a deacon of a church murdered a man by laying on of hands for the purpose of healing. According to the Security Bureau, Mr. Kim Ui-Hong, 45, eldest son of Mr. Kim Jung-Soon, Okjo-ri, Nampo-myun, Bo-ryung-kun Choongnamdo, has been insane for 6 years. On the 22nd, last, a deacon of the Presbyterian Church of the. same town, Kim-Soon-Chun, 45, locked the insane person in one of Mr. Kim’s rooms, providing no food, and saying, ‘he can certainly be cured if prayers are offered for several days.’ He then choked the patient’s stomach, middle of his back and even his throat. Finally Mr. Kim died on the 24th. On receipt of the report, the po-people by laying on of hands. Here Is one of such cases where a believer in Christianity killed a person in an attempt to save him miraculously by prayer, but who became an object of public rebuke.

RELIGIOUS KILLINGS

A Latter from a Catholic

« A Catholic living in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, recently wrote a thought-provoking letter to the Roman Catholic magazine The Sign, In its issue of September, 1955, The Sign published the letter. This is what it said:

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Awake!, October 22, 1956