Awake!, June 8, 1960
Download: PDF — Awake!, June 8, 1960
wrch Unity in the Air
Aiy So Much Cheating in School?
PAGE a
w>p the High Cost of Waste
of Ten Thousand Smokes
JUNE 8, 1960
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
Newt sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. "Awake!" 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 riot abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.
"Awake!” uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on all continents, in scores of notions. 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 af 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!" pledges itself to righteous principles, to exposing hidden foes and subtle dangers, to championing freedom for all, to comforting mourners and strengthening those disheartened by the failures of a delinquent world, reflecting sure hope for the establishment of a righteous New World.
Get acquainted with "Awake!" Keep awake by reading "Awake!*1
PrrBUSHca SintnjTJurncusL'r in ths United States by ths WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY OF NEW YORK, INC, 117 Adams Street Brooklyn 1, New York. U.S.A.
ano in England by WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY
Watch Tower House, The Ridgeway N. H. Knorb, Prestdont
Printing this issue: 3,075,000
‘Awns!" Is sekllsM Is ttw tsi lowing 21 esBlnostlllr-^Arrtksms, Danish, Dnitb, English, rmn-lati, Efreneii, Owman. Creak, I Lallan, Jipatieso, glan. Portuguese, Spanish. SwtdJab, Zulu-
IfMtfrfr—Ifitattriaib Korean, Polish, Uknln-|1D.
Ytarly gnteeripUtm raia
Oflltss for sernlmciithlj edlUahs
America, U-S.» 117 Adame str Brodilyn 1, N,T. $1 Art trail*’ 11 Bamford Bd.. Strathfield, N.S-W.
Canada. 150 BrtdgeUad An., Toronto 19r Ont.
EsatafUf, ffitdi fftntrc, The Kldgevar, London N.W. 7
New laahnis 621 New North Bd.. Airkltwl, S.W. 1 7/-Sortfr Africa, Private Bag., ElanJafwilirin, Til 7/-
Moulbly editions ccH bait the aiwre retea.
l»oBdOD N.W. 7, BnglaDd Gunt Sun™, Secretary
4d a copy (Australia, fid) ■amfttmoes fur sufartpitoas airociJ be atrrt to jfae !□ yuur cmmtrr. (Hiwrrlw send yuur remltLuu^ to Luodon. Nolle* of expiration la sent at least tvo issues before imbsodptton expire*.
CHARGES OF ADDRESS thoaid reach Hiirty dap before yoir inning data. GM n yg«r old And Udrew (It panlhla. hit old slfreu label). Watch Tosrer, Watch Tower Hom, The Ridgeway, iMdM N.Y, 7g EaUM
Bn lend m second'daas matrer it Brooklyn, N.T. Printed la England
Th Bible trenilatlm itid la “Awnkil" It ttt Mew World TranilstlM d th Roly Script™. When rtte® tranalatione an im! the following rymMc will appes behind the eltatltna;
— AfflwdcAD £iindard Version AT- Ao American Tranalflliflo Authorhetf Verdon (16l£j j5ti - J. N, Darby’s raslcm
— Calbolle Duuaj rerriou ED- The Emphatic Ofagtott JP - Jewish Publication Boe, Le - But User's radon
Mo- Jams Moffatt's radon JEo - J- J. Sodfvfaam’j rerafam ftfl- Berteed Standard Verslijn - Botat Taung's radon
CONTENTS
Experts Can Be Wrong
Sweden’s Problem Children
Church Unity in the Air
What Causes Those Freckles?
Why So Much Cheating in School?
Oh! My Ulcers!
Miscellany
Suffering from an Overdose
Stop the High Cost of Waste
“Your Word Is Truth”
Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes
"Tormented . . . Forever"?
Kight Works on Floating Territory
Watching the world
men who are held in high esteem by this world. Their learned opinion was that the railway engine would never move but would remain in one spot with its wheels
WHEN the railroad was being pioneered the scientific experts of the day condemned it with the cocksureness that is so typical of slipping on the rails. They were wrong. It did move, and railway trains became one of the world’s chief means of transportation.
The expert opinion of the elite scientists of the famous French Academy of Sciences at the time when steam was first being experimented with for use in boats was just as wrong. Their opinion was that the experiment was not worth spending money on. On another occasion these exalted men of learning were wrong about meteorites. They declared with the positiveness of men famous for their intellect that stones could not fall from the sky and that meteorites must be stones belched up by volcanoes. Once again the experts were wrong.
When William Harvey made known his discovery about the circulation of blood in the body, medical experts denounced him. Despite their great learning, Harvey was right and they were wrong. The story has been the same for a great many other discoveries and inventions that proved to be milestones in the advancement of human knowledge and modern civilization. Self-opinionated experts were, time and time again, obstructions to progress. They were celebrated for their learning but foolish in being so positive.
Human advancement has been remarkable during the last sixty years, but that has not eliminated the attitude of overconfident positiveness that caused experts in past centuries to appear so very foolish. Regarding this Anthony Standen states in his book Science Is a Sacred Cow: “Scientists are exalted beings who stand at the very topmost pinnacle of popular prestige, for they have the monopoly of the formula ‘It has been scientifically proved . . . ’ which appears to rule out all possibility of disagreement. . . . Hie dreadful cocksureness that is characteristic of scientists in bulk is not only quite foreign to the spirit of true science, it is not even justified by a superficial view.”
Many modem doctors of medicine are as loath to having the wisdom of their expert opinions questioned as were learned doctors of past centuries who followed medical procedures that are now wholly discredited. It is true that they know more about their field than the layman, but that does not mean that methods of treatment discovered by persons without degrees from a medical school are not worth being considered. A well-known example is the case of Elizabeth Kenny, who developed a new method for treating persons stricken with polio. “To most medical men,” Marvin Kline states in Readers Digest., “it was inconceivable that anyone with so little formal training could have developed a successful method of treatment.” But again the experts were wrong.
At one time doctors had the practice of bleeding their patients, and no doubt would have been greatly incensed if any layman had dared to object to it. Today the pendulum has swung in the other direction. Instead of bleeding patients, blood is put into them. Some doctors become furious when a person objects to this practice and will refuse to attempt any alternative treatment such as blood substitutes although these have proved to be very effective. Persons who have recovered without blood transfusions, although told that they would die without them, have shown that medical experts can be wrong.
Scientists may proudly claim that they are reasonable and tolerant, yet many of them show by their actions that they can be very narrow-minded and bigoted. Because a man has much learning, that does not make him wise, although he may imagine himself to be a man of wisdom. Paul Tabori states in his book The Natural Science of Stupidity: "There are stupid nen who possess vast knowledge; the man who can reel off the dates of battles, the statistical data of exports and imports, can still be a dolt. There are wise men whose mowledge is very limited. As a matter of fact, prolific, luxuriant knowledge can often mask stupidity.”
The man with wisdom is not the man with a lot of knowledge who has an inflated opinion of himself, but is the man who knows how to use the knowledge he has with good judgment. The Bible gives splendid counsel when it says: "Do not become wise in your own eyes.” (Prov. 3: 7) The man with wisdom does not exalt himself as an expert whose opinions are infallible, but he realizes how little man really knows. He is well aware that all the knowledge man has gained is no more than a faint spark in the vast darkness of the unknown. The wise man humbly acknowledges the fact that man has much to learn.
The experts of this world may make their dogmatic statements with an impressive appearance of persons with great wisdom, yet in the eyes of the One who created this material universe about which man knows so very little, their wisdom is foolishness. They study his magnificent creations and then stretch their imaginations to great lengths trying to explain how these creations came into existence by themselves, by mere accident. “It is written: ‘I will make the wisdom of the wise men perish, and I will shove the intelligence of the intellectual aside.’ Where is the wise man? Where the scribe? Where the debater of this system of things? Did not God make the wisdom of the world foolish?”—1 Cor. 1:19, 20.
Because a person may be classed as an expert in a certain field of knowledge, that does not mean his opinions are without error. The practice of this technical civilization of putting scientific experts on pedestals and looking up to them with awe is a grave mistake. Instead of saving the human race, they are endangering it. Mankind’s hope for preservation is not in worldly men of learning but in the wisdom of Jehovah God.
ft
ar» Ai*
Ai* ChrMian h
■ I; A
66TTNITY is in the air”—so LJ says Presbyterian cleric Eugene Carson Blake, a World Council of Churches executive. Speaking also in a positive way, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Delaware J. Brooke Mosley declares that church unity is "no pipe dream.” The churches, Bishop Mosley insists, are “drawing together.” At the core of this drawing-together process, he said, is the growing ecumenical movement represented by such bodies as the World Council of Churches, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America and similar groups. Not only Protestants, but the pope is also talking of unity.
Pope John XXilTs announcement last year electrified Christendom; he announced “an ecumenical [world-wide] council for the universal church.” The council, the pope pointed out, "is intended also as an invitation to the separated communities in quest of unity.” Later it was announced that representatives of the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches will hold unofficial theological /discussions in Venice with a view to possible reunion of the two churches.
- With all this talk of church unity, ' one naturally wonders: Is there really a basis for the optimism of so many churchmen? Whether great
Church mergers take place or not, how is the Christian to view the matter?
The Ecumenical Movement
Taking a look at the church unity move-ment, we find that it is now at least fifty years old. The 1910 Edinburgh Conference
WSS the beginning of major talks over enurch unity. In 1925, in Stockholm, and m 1927, in Lausanne, there were further conferences involving church unity. In 1948 the World Council of Churches came into formal existence. How effective is the World Council in promoting unity? "Again and again,” said The Christian Century of September 30, 1959, “the World Council reminds its members that it is not an organization to organize unity. It would break up tomorrow if it began actively to promote unions.” With specific church mergers not the chief goal of the World Council, its members seem to concentrate on co-operation and understanding between the churches. Dean Liston Pope of the Yale Divinity School says: "Certainly the World Council of Churches has no intention of becoming a superchurch.” Church leaders desire, says Dean Pope, “a much greater degree of unity than we now have.”
Despite the fact that most of the church unity movement has been made up of conferences and talk, there has been some success: The two large Presbyterian churches in Scotland merged to become the Church of Scotland. A similar merger in the United States resulted in the United Presbyterian Church. But there seem to be
more setbacks than success. The Church of England and the Church of Scotland came to a standstill in their negotiations. Talks between the Congregationalists and Presbyterians in Britain broke down. Talks between the United Church and the Anglicans in Canada were dropped.
What about talk of unity between Protestants and the Roman Catholic Church? "The Catholic Church,” said one of the Vatican’s chief spokesmen on unity, “can never consent to putting herself on the same plane with other confessions.” Regarding the conference called for by the pope, correspondent Robert Neville, a specialist on Vatican matters, reports: “It will be, first of all, a purely Catholic gathering, held under Catholic jurisdiction with Catholic rules and regulations prevailing throughout. The Pope will be chairman of the council. All together, some 3,000 prelates will attend. Voting members will be diocesan bishops of active sees, plus perhaps some theologians, all Catholics. . . . Nothing approaching a debate or any bargaining with members of other faiths will be permitted.”
One of the great obstacles to merger between the Orthodox and Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic Church is the Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility.
The “Coming Great Church”
But more and more there is talk of church unity despite disunity. The “coming great church,” according to Bishop Mosley, will have unity but will not require uniformity: “We are not expected to give up that which is essential to us in matters of faith and order or even that which is precious to us in our traditions.”
Thus the idea is to have a headquarters unity but not to worry about doctrinal unity. The “coming great church” would be a conglomeration pf different creeds and dogmas. “I rejoice that there are many creedal formulations,” writes cleric Howard Conn of the Plymouth Congregational Church of Minneapolis, “many shades of opinion and many sincere interpretations. I believe that God is more fully grasped by the multitudinous traditions with their varying emphasis than by a uniformity of belief and practice.” (The Christian Herald of August, 1958) So unity of belief would be sacrificed on the altar of expediency. The churches would have unity of action and headquarters but at the same time they would keep their differences doctrinally.
Well summing up the church unity movement is Dr. Samuel McCrea Cavert, recently retired as executive secretary of the New York Office of the World Council. From the vantage point of forty years’ contact with the interfaith movement, Dr, Cavert says: “The question is whether we can find a united church where there is enough room for differences.”
Position of True Christians
What is the Christian to think of all this? Instead of depending on clerical interpretations and views, the Christian goes to God’s Word, the Holy Bible. He seeks the mind of Jehovah God on the matter of interfaith, on the matter of putting up with all kinds of conflicting dogmas and doctrines.
By a study of the Bible the Christian learns that Jehovah God has always been opposed to compromise with falsehood and even to association with those whose doctrines are not “healthful teaching according to the glorious good news of the happy God.” (1 Tim. 1:10, 11) Going back to the time of ancient Egypt, the Christian learns that Jehovah opposed the false gods and dogmas of the Egyptians and would not tolerate any interfaith movement involving his people and false religions. The ten plagues were evidence of God’s opposition to interfaith.
Since the doctrines of the various churches conflict with one another, some of them must be false. But no effort is effectively being made by them to go to the Bible to root out these false teachings, using the Bible as the standard. Rather, they will put up with false doctrines to gain the objective of headquarters unity. What a different course of action was taken by Jesus Christ! He did not try to merge the Christian organization with the scribes and Pharisees, putting unity above right doctrine. No, but Jesus declared emphatically: “Let them be. Blind guides is what they are. If, then, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”—Matt. 15:14.
The apostles of Jesus Christ taught likewise; and never did they encourage any interfaith, any compromise with falsehood, any idea that doctrinal differences were all right. Ruling out the basic principle of the church merger movement, the apostle Paul declared: “I exhort you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you should all speak in agreement, and that there should not be divisions among you, but that you may be fitly united in the same mind and in the same line of thought.” —1 Cor. 1:10.
Doctrinal unity and, above all, harmony with the pure Word of God is what Jehovah requires. No matter that churchmen may have conflicting “sincere interpretations” and “multitudinous traditions”! Jesus Christ, quoting the word of God as recorded by the prophet Isaiah, stated the matter clearly: “ ‘“It is in vain that they pay respect to me, because they teach as doctrines commands of men.” Letting go the commandment of God you observe the tradition of men.’ Further he went on to say to them: ‘Adroitly you set aside the commandment of God in order to retain your tradition.’ ”—Mark 7:7-9.
1 And that is what the church unity movement does—sets aside the will and commandments of God to retain their traditions and conflicting dogmas for the sake of outward unity! How utterly opposed Jehovah and Jesus Christ are to such movements for true Christians’
Even when various churches refuse to join in the great interfaith movement, their refusal is not based on the will of God and God’s commandments. Usually their fear is that of having to give up something, some tradition, some dogma. But the Bible view is this: “Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? ... ‘Therefore get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah, ‘and quit touching the unclean thing.’ 2 Cor. 6:14-17.
Talk of church unity is in the air, but the psalmist reminds us: “Unless Jehovah himself builds the house, it is to no avail that its builders have labored on it.”—Ps. 127:1.
True Christians shun the unscriptural house that interfaith workers would build; they go to the Bible to see what true worship really was before interfaith activity with paganism corrupted it with traditions of men. That is the course Jehovah’s Witnesses have taken—going back to the pure first-century Christianity, to the principles Jesus actually taught; and for doing so they are receiving Jehovah’s rich blessings.
WwMMtaek,
6617'VERYONE else is dor j ing it. Why shouldn’t you? Why should you get low marks?” replied a high school junior when asked about the prevalence of cheating in school. Does this pupil’s appraisal reflect a growing trend toward cheating among students, especially at the high school and college levels? Just how widespread is cheating in school? Is there any serious harm in it? Should it be passed off as a youthful prank, or is it the sign of something far more serious?
To determine the extent of using illegitimate aid in examinations, a survey was taken of 3,000 students in eleven colleges. It revealed that 40 percent of the students resorted to some form of cheating. In another instance the editor of a college paper contended that up to 90 percent of the students at his college cheated during examinations. At one large university students produced evidence of dishonesty so widespread as to challenge the validity of work assignments and examinations at that institution.
One of the most extensive studies on this problem was made by a committee headed by Philip E. Jacob of the University of Pennsylvania, who compiled the study in his book Changing Values in College. He stated: “The chinks in the moral armor of American students are most obvious in regard to cheating. The practice is so widespread as to challenge the well nigh universal claim of students that they value honesty as a moral virtue. Frequent cheating is admitted by 40% or more at a number of colleges, often with no apology or sense of wrongdoing.” Another investigation produced this conclusion: “Actually, institutions where large scale, organized cheating has not been knpwn are a small minority," This opinion was corroborated by the observation of Dr. Edward D. Eddy, Jr., vicepresident and provost of the University of New Hampshire. At a meeting of the American Council on Education he told a discussion group that cheating throughout the country “has become a part of student culture, it’s taken for granted.”
Nor is cheating confined to one country. Even the Russians are plagued by it, as cheating is commonplace and the students joke about their notes written on narrow slips of paper.
Cheaters at Work
The simplest form of cheating is for one student to copy from another who has moved his paper into a convenient position. In addition to this, however, all sorts of devices are used by pupils to receive or dispense information during examinations. At one school the established method of communicating true or false answers is the raising and lowering of a pencil to indicate right or wrong. Some have written answers on articles of clothing such as shirt cuffs and skirt hems. Others wrote on fingernails and various portions of the hand. In the case of some women students, answers have been written above the knee so as to be covered by the skirt. Notes have been placed in dummy pens and pencils, watches, cigarette packages and match covers. One enterprising student even had a small tape recorder inserted into a fake hearing aid. Others have secreted information outside the examination room, reaching it by excusing themselves on one pretext or another.
Examination papers have been obtained in advance by outright theft, pilfering of wastebaskets or by bribing employees and officials of schools. An associate professor of a university said: “Almost every period before finals several faculty offices are broken into at night by students attempting to steal examination ^questions.”
On one occasion the cheating backfired. A student sat near an open window and threw out the questions to a friend who hurried to the library, found the answers and typed them out. In the confusion after the examination was over, he slipped into the room and handed his friend the papers. This cheating would have gone undetected except for one detail the pair overlooked —the examination room had no typewriters!
Even more serious forms of cheating were uncovered recently by a daring reporter for a large New York city newspaper. Posing as a writer willing to work for cheating students, he contacted agencies whose business was the ghost-writing of term papers and theses for college students—for a price. His investigation showed that students paid from $50 to $500 for the writing of term papers and up to $3,000 for the writing of theses needed for higher college degrees. This reporter, Alex Benson of the New York World Telegram and Sun, was actually hired by one ghost-writing firm to substitute for a cheating student and take his college examination for the fee of $40! Later the student informed Mr. Benson that he had received an A- for his efforts!
Attitude of Students and Teachers
While many students are disturbed over the growing trend toward cheating, others are not and regard it as standard practice. Many consider cheating as a necessary evil of modern life. The consensus of opinion among scores of high school students interviewed was that since cheating has become so prevalent, it is viewed as accepted academic technique. But why? What motivates these young people to cheat? Is it mere laziness? In some cases, yes, but there are other factors involved. A sixteen-year-old college freshman put it this way: “Everything is so competitive in high school and college. The emphasis is on getting high marks. They don’t seem to care what knowledge you get as long as you get good grades—no matter if you get them by cheating.” Another eighteen-year-old just out of high school spoke of the importance of final exams, which, she said, inspired cheating: “Every little test counts towards going to college. There’s such pressure on the kids. Soon the whole idea becomes a farce. I don’t think it’s right that they cheat, but the school is partly to blame.”
One girl whose father was a high school principal, her mother a teacher, resorted to cheating. A friend told why: “The standards held for her were so high they were beyond her. She had been pushed. She was an honestly bright girl. If she got a 97 she wondered why she didn’t get a 100.” Another said of his school: “Cheating is rampant here. The reason is there’s such a desire to go to college, so much emphasis on marks, college boards and careers,"
Teachers in general do not condone cheating. Yet by their lack of adequate supervision during examinations and their refusal to administer discipline where cheating is obvious, students are actually encouraged to continue the practice. In one large college an alert teacher caught a student cheating and put the case in the dean’s hands. The dean said that regulations permitted expelling the boy from school, but “nobody else invokes the rule. You’ve caught the boy and embarrassed him. Maybe he’s learned his lesson. We’ve always had cheats and we always will. Why get excited now? Think it over.” When the teacher asked other faculty members for their opinions in the matter, they responded with similar statements. One said: “It isn’t fair of us to expect it [honesty] of them.’’ Another replied: “Our job is to give students technical education. As I see it, if we start trying to teach morals and ethics, it will interfere with our basic purpose. Why should we care how they get the material so long as they get it?” So it went from teacher to teacher. Each advocated either a mild reprimand or indifference. However, one teacher expressed a notable sentiment voiced by instructors elsewhere, saying, “Why should we teach students to be honest and truthful? As soon as they get out into the world, they will find businessmen generally are out to get all they can in any way they can. If we teach students to be honest and truthful we’re giving them a false orientation."
This latter comment comes closest to the real source of encouragement for young people to cheat: the failure of adults to set the proper example for their children!
Adults Flunk the Test
T^ue, cheating in school is a disgrace, but the real shame is the general moral letdown by grownups whose responsibility it is to raise the children. In every sphere of influence that a child can observe from the time he is old enough to understand, he finds fraud, deception, the attitude of getting away with it if you can. Many boys and girls sense this moral breakdown and are disturbed by it.
How can adults expect the young to grow up into men and women of integrity when respected businessmen, politicians, public figures, lawmen, yes, even teachers are involved in cheating, theft and immorality? A devastating example was set by one teacher at Columbia University, Charles Van Doren. After winning thousands of dollars on a popular TV quiz show it was revealed that Mr. Van Doren had been supplied with the answers beforehand! Teachers also have been involved in the recent ghost-writing scandals. At one of the agencies, a college professor in Oklahoma paid $1,250 to have his doctoral treatise rewritten. Still another teacher applied for the services of a ghost writer, saying, “I’m so busy teaching I just don’t have the time to do it.” He was told the price would be $100. Moreover, the student mentioned previously who paid $40 to have a substitute take his examination was a prospective teacher at a teachers college! When told of this, the president of the college said, “What concerns me most deeply is that the teaching profession is involved. It is particularly bad that prospective teachers should engage in such practices.” He added: “The general moral tone in our country is tending to encourage this sort of thing ... It is a little like our attitude toward the income tax—if you can get away with it it is all right.”
A famous coach told how colleges cheat when they “buy” top athletes, placing the major responsibility on college presidents. Not surprising, then, to hear reports like the one from Dingwall, Scotland, which told of the dirty work afoot in the 891-mile walking race from one end of the British Isles to the other. Organizers of the meet disqualified fifty contestants. Why? For sneaking rides when they thought no one was looking!
Instances such as these serve to undermine the faith of children in their adult leaders. Commenting on the TV quiz scandals, political dishonesty, and student cheating, a college freshman declared: "I think it’s inevitable because of the moral sickness of our times. The whole outlook seems to be for money. People nowadays feel money is the most important thing. There seems to be no moral standard of right and wrong. You start wondering what the world is coming to.” A high school graduate expressed this thought: “You see a man in the position Van Doren was in . . . you sort of lose faith in humanity.”
Cheating Harms the Cheater
Not only does cheating exert a bad influence on others, but it affects the lives of those who practice it. To illustrate: what would you think of a runner training for the Olympics who had someone else do his roadwork and exercise for him? How would you view a prizefighter who refused to spar a round while preparing for a championship bout, but hired someone else to do it? Would you trust your life in a critical operation to a doctor who received his degree by cheating? You would likely lack confidence in these people, because neither the runner nor the prizefighter nor the surgeon was adequately prepared for his task.
So, too, with students preparing for life. Having someone else do their work robs them of the mental exercise needed to train their minds for future undertakings. Developing the ability to think can be likened to the development of a healthy body. Lack of use tends to wither away the limbs. Similarly, lack of use tends to wither away thinking ability.
Further damage is done to cheaters in that it paves the way for compromise with other forms of wrongdoing. If a student practices dishonesty while in school, what kind of influence will he exert when he attains a high position in government, business or education? Will he stop cheating merely because he has stopped "being a student? All the evidence indicates otherwise. Cheating in small things leads to cheating in big things. Swindlers in all walks of life are not made overnight. They learn their bad habits over a period of time.
la There a Remedy?
Cheating in school is the product of an increasingly sick age. Shortly before his death, Thomas Mann declared that the world was undergoing a moral and ethical retrogression that could nullify any progress achieved by the technological developments of recent years. This has been confirmed by the low tide of morality in all walks of life, the crime and delinquency rampant throughout the world, the dishonesty in business and social affairs. All of these things mark our highly significant age as the "last days” foretold in Bible prophecy. The remedy for these ills is the coming in of a new world, made possible by the greatest change in human history, the universal war of Armageddon, where God himself will wipe away all forms of cheating from the earth. Already hundreds of thousands of people who love honesty have gathered into a New World society and have made their minds over to the high standards set forth in God’s Word, the Holy Bible. These righteous principles are put into practice by them daily, and healthful mental habits are cultivated in the family circle by teaching young ones to respect the right and shun the wrong. They thus demonstrate to others that honesty can prevail in an entire society of people, young and old. Their reason for doing so is an overpowering, one—the desire to do God’s will and be found worthy of everlasting life in a paradise earth free from cheating and cheaters,
In response to the Washington Post's “Favorite Teacher” essay contest, a boy in the
this experience in The Maine Woods; “Once, when Joe [the Indian guide] had called again,
first grade sent in his letter, readily admitting that he liked "Miss Davis.” He scrawled: “I wish she was smart enough to teach second grade, too, next year.”
ROCKETING APPREHENSIONS
General J. B. Medaris, commander, of the Army Ordnance Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, received a letter from a class of school children. Hie eight- and nine-year-old children said that they had no buses for science trips but maybe they could ride in a rocket to the moon. “Now this could be a real good field trip,” the pupils wrote. "If you have any spare room, we would like to be the first third grade class to go into orbit. There are 34 in our class but some of the girls are scared, so all of us won’t go.” The general replied: "Were I planning such a trip now, I can think of no more pleasant companions than you daring adventurers." As for the girls’ apprehensions, he added; “I frankly don’t blame them.”
IN RHYTHM WITH THE WORLD
The following news report from London appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer of March 28, 1969: “Worshipers at a Good Friday service here tonight sipped beer while they sang hymns to rock ’n’ roll music. The service, organized by six Anglican parish priests, was held in the dance hall section of the Rose Tavern, and members of the congregation nipped out to the bar and brought back a beer when they felt thirsty. 'We art aiming at taking the Easter message to people who are not in church and we believe this is the way to do it,' explained Rev. Geoffrey Beaumont, 55, who wrote rock ’n’ roll accompaniment to the hymns played by two guitars, piano and drums. ‘I see no reason why we should not use the rhythm of the day to sing hymns and I see no reason why the congregation should not sip beer if it wants to.’ ”
THINKER
< Art Linkletter tells about one of his interviews: “I asked one little boy what he wanted to be when he grew up. He thought a long moment and then said: 'Alive.' "
A SOUND IN NATURE
<L American writer Henry David Thoreau tells and we were listening for moose, we heard, come faintly echoing, or creeping from afar, through the moss-clad aisles, a dull, dry, rushing sound with a solid core to it, yet as if half-smothered under the grasp of the luxuriant and funguslike forest, like the shutting of a door in some distant entry of the damp and shaggy wilderness. If we had not been there, no mortal had heard it. When we asked Joe in a whisper what it was, he answered, ’Tree fall.’ ”
f PROHIBITION
** Samuel Dicken, writing in Economic Geography, tells how the wine grape industry in the United States was able to survive through the Prohibition period. “When Prohibition came into force in 1920,” he writes, "many wine grape growers pulled up their vines and planted other crops. But many more continued to grow wine grapes, finding a limited market among the Italian and other European immigrants. Many thousands of home wine makers helped to maintain the industry. One enterprising producer of wine grapes marketed them In a pressed package which bore the injunction, 'Do not put these grapes in water with yeast for that will produce wine, which is illegal.' ”
RIDING THE WAVES
During a gale 180 miles off Bermuda, Francis Schremp, chief officer of the American freighter John Lykes, was swept off the deck of his ship by a fifty-foot wave. Before a full minute could pass, another gigantic wave swept him back onto his ship against a winch. Other crew members grabbed him to safety. In Liverpool, describing how fortunate he was to get wave-power propulsion back to his ship, Schremp explained: “I can't swim a stroke."
/WA5JE
WHY, in this world of plenty, should two thirds of the world’s population be undernourished and half of its children go to bed hungry every night? Why should anyone live on the edge of starvation and suffer from malnutrition diseases when there are mountains of foodstuffs stored away to rot? Why, in this twentieth century, when man-made satellites orbit the sun, when his rockets crash into the moon and his power-driven machines till the soil, should there be want? Why in this day should two thirds of humanity live in misery? The answer is not a pleasant or a simple one.
While there are loud boasts of technical progress and industrialization, yet 60 percent or 1,700,000,000 of earth’s inhabitants live in underdeveloped lands, where the wood plow, the hoe and the scythe are their main implements of food production. Of the world's 8,728,000 farm tractors, 93 percent are found mainly in North America and Europe. There have been changes, but these have been mainly in the industrialized West.
Fifty years ago an American farmer raised enough food for himself and six others. Today, with modem techniques and machinery, he produces enough for himself and nineteen others. When the Russian farm delegation visited Iowa in the summer of 1955, they found a father and his twelve year-old son operating a 320-acre farm without hired help. One Russian spoke up and said that in Russia it would take a hundred men to operate a farm that size. They saw quite a change due to modern farming. From 1940 to 1957,
United States farmers cut their potato acreage in half, but the yield per acre more than doubled. The 1957 crop was 4 percent larger than that of 1940. The problem is not the growing of food, but the disposing of it. Ninety percent of the world’s food is kept, consumed or wasted in the countries where it is produced. The surplus foods do not reach the starving millions. Why not?
It is not as easy to give away food surpluses as it may seem. Many nations are not exactly moved by compassion or neighborly love. The United States learned the hard way that to give away food or place it on the competitive world market can make enemies and irritate nations. A few years ago it wanted to sell some of its surplus butter to a friendly European nation so that that nation’s school children could have butter with their lunches, but the children’s dairymen objected. They argued that imported butter would jeopardize their domestic market price. There were charges from other nations that the United States was out to flood the market with its surpluses in violation of international trade agreements So while politicians and economists toyed with laws and prices, the children went without butter. And it is the same type of maneuvering that keeps food from the mouths of the hungry millions today.
During the nineteen twenties the method of disposing of surplus foods was leather crude when measured by today’s fashion. Back there they simply dumped good food into rivers, or heaped it up until it formed small mountains, then they poured oil or poison over the food so that no one would eat it. Sometimes foodstuffs were burned. In 1921, Brazil burned coffee for fuel. In New York 200 carloads of turkeys and other poultry were held on side tracks to obtain a better market price. In 1920, thousands of gallons of milk were dumped into rivers and creeks of southern Illinois. In the fall of that year a trainload of watermelons was dumped into the Potomac River to avoid breaking the city price below 25 cents. In the summer of 1924, thousands of packages of cucumbers and other fresh vegetables were deliberately destroyed. In October, 1921, farmers were told to burn corn instead of coal. And every few years the state of Maine lets a large supply of its potato crop rot in the ground just to keep prices up. In 1924, 5,000 carloads of peaches were left to rot on trees because the prices offered by dealers were not enough to pay the cost of gathering and shipping the crop to the market. All of this maneuvering at a time when many millions of people in the world were badly in need of food.
Disposing of Food Surpluses
Today the method of disposing of surpluses is less obvious. It is not ethical to destroy good food publicly any more. The current fashion of getting rid of what producers fondly call surpluses is to store the foodstuffs in abandoned warehouses, caves, ships or boxcars, there to lie quietly unobserved until the food rots or until aggressive disposal programs move the stock to foreign markets. Right now the United States government, by buying surplus stock from the farmers, has come into possession of some 1,200,000,000 bushels of com, worth $2,000,000,000. It also owns a surplus of wheat of over 1,400,000,000 bushels, or more than two and a half times the nation’s annual domestic needs, worth some $3,500,000,000. In 1954, it owned 1,000,000,-000 pounds of dairy products. There is no telling how much it owns today. In the summer of 1956, the United States Commodity Credit Corporation that buys and sells the surplus stock from the farmers had almost $9,000,000,000 invested in price support inventory and commodity loans. This $9,000,000,000 stockpile was being built up about one and a half times faster than it could be liquidated. For every bushel moved out from the storage bins, there was about a bushel and a half being poured back in. This farm program in 1958 cost the United States taxpayer $6,700,000,000, or more than two thirds as much as 1940’s total federal spending. -In 1959, over $9,-000,000,000 was invested in surplus stock. According to President Eisenhower, the United States government “sustains a net cost of more than $1,000 a minute—$1.5 million every day—the'year round” in its efforts to support the wheat crop alone! That is $1,000 a minute, or $540,000,000 a year for storage, handling and interest on an unwanted crop. This represents a sizable fortune of the taxpayers' money being shot through the funnel of total waste.
Certainly, both the money and the food could be put to better use. Would it not be better to give the food away than to pay hundreds of millions of dollars yearly just to see it rot? United States Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson agreed. “I certainly have always favored making food available to hungry people even if we have to give it away,” he said, "rather than let It stand in government warehouses indefinitely until it eats itself up in storage charges.” When asked why more food was not being moved to the hungry, Benson stated: "Until now disposal was pretty well restricted.” Restricted by whom? Certainly not by the taxpayer who has to bear the burden of the storage bill, or by the farmer who is anxious to see the crop go. Then by whom is the flow of food to the hungry restricted? Well, we can just guess. It, no doubt, is restricted by selfish commercialists and politicians who are toying for an extra dollar or for political advantage. Former member of the United Nations Dr. Josue de Castro as much as admitted this fact when he said: “Hunger comes from flaws in the social and economic structure erected by the human race in becoming 'civilized.* ” One thing certain, men cannot blame God or the earth for the present starvation among them, because there is plenty of food for everyone. In fact, according to De Castro, the earth "could properly feed three times the present population of the earth, without a single improvement in existing agricultural techniques." Men have only themselves and their selfish economic and social system^ to blame. The love of neighbor as oneself would remedy the problem.
Notorious Wasters
However, the waste problem neither begins nor ends with the farm surplus mess. From its very beginning the history of the United States has been, as a London Times reviewer stated, “a wasteful process.” Floyd W. Parsons, editor of the Gas Age Record, said: "The story of the development of life and industry in America is the most amazing tale of the waste of wealth by a careless, improvident people that the world has ever known. We have flooded the air with that wonder fuel, natural gas; covered our land with the ashes of burned forests, killed off our wild animal life for the sport that was in it, and robbed our virgin acres of so much of their fertility that in many of the regions farming as a pursuit is about as obsolete as the spinning wheel.”
The nation’s garbage pails are filled with nibbled fruit and half-eaten meals. In 1957, Americans spent 566,000,000,000 for food products, including meals in restaurants and other eating places—an average of 5388 per person. Cardinal Spellman of New York stated that many of these people "waste enough food at one meal to sustain an entire family."
But wasters are not all confined to the United States, because people the world over are guilty of this crime. For example, for every barrel of oil that reaches the world's pipelines, it is estimated that three barrels are wasted in delivery or left forever unreclaimable underground. Heat and power would be considerably cheaper if there were not so much waste. According to Arthur D. Little, out of the world’s annual cut of 110,000,000,000 board feet of timber, some 70,000,000,000 board feet are wasted. Think of how many homes this waste would make. Over 300,000,000 acres of cutover land is unsuitable for farming, because of reckless methods used in the exploitation of the land. Think of how many mouths those millions of acres could feed.
The world produces nearly 3,000,000,000 tons of wheat straw annually. How much of that total is wasted nobody knows. But in the United States some 40,000,000 tons are burned annually. It has been known for more than a hundred years that a fine paper can be made from wheat straw, but the transportation and manufacturing costs would put the paper beyond the range of the buyer. So the straw is burned. Rats, insects and fungi destroy annually about 33,000,000 tons of essential foods. That is enough to feed the entire population of the United States for a full year. In house construction the United States house owners spend $500,000,000 a year in the repair of rusted metal work, the greater part of which could be avoided if more durable materials were used in the first place. Many cities pay enormous sums of money to have their sewage destroyed, yet sewage makes one of the finest fertilizers. Many
European women beg for glycerin to make soap, still the American housewife dumps her cooking fat, a principal source of glycerin, into the garbage. Such fat was saved during wartime; could it not be saved now to make soap?
War Waste
Up to quite recently economic waste meant chiefly the garbage pail and the salvaging of products normally thrown away. But these wastes hardly scratch the surface of the most tragic of all wastes— war. The waste in agricultural land, forests, private homes, public buildings, factories, railway lines, bridges, power plants, mines, dams, labor power and lives caused by World Wars I and n, no doubt, will never be known. According to a United States Navy estimate, another world war would cost the United States $4,000,000,000,000, or ten times that of World War II. Adlai E. Stevenson said that if the military arms race continues for another ten years the nations of the world will spend at least $2,000,000,000,000 for defense. This without any promise of security. The waste stemming out of military preparedness is costing the American taxpayer alone more than $100,000,000 a week or some $5,000,000,000 a
t........
i COMING IN THE NEXT ISSUE
I a A frank, factual, Scriptural discussion of j the oft-repeated question: What prospects i for world unity?
I A The facte about lawsuits against do ctor s-j Are they Justified? Who really foots the bill? j What can be done to remedy the situation? ’ $ A fascinating description of “Living Won.
I ders of the Desert.”
; £ Happy conversation at mealtime is a fee
l tor in health. It contributes to family unity.
Make it a part of your family life. Learn how in the next issue of “Awake!”
1 year! In 1955, the j Hoover Commission i revealed that the | United States Navy § had enough canned I hamburger on hand I to last for nearly sixty years, enough blue trousers for eight 5 years; and the army had a ten-year supply of women’s wool uniforms. A scholarly volume released by the Statistical Office of the United Nations reached this conclusion: If hot wars could be permanently ended, mankind would find itself entering a period of plenty.
On earth there is plenty for all, but selfish man is a waster. God is not, however. And this earth is his. He gives promise that he will destroy selfish man who destroys the earth. (Rev. 11:18) Under the rulership of God’s kingdom by Jesus Christ none will starve, because the King will reign in righteousness. Wasters will be gone. Builders will be present, transforming this earth into a paradise to the glory of God. Poverty and despair will for all time perish from the earth, Hope in that kingdom, you who love righteousness, for “the righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it." —Ps. 37:29.
JUNE 8, 1960
force that few fragments were found that were even as large as a golf ball. The earlier blasts set off the top layers of the volcanoes, which were very dark to somewhat lighter gray in color, then, as eruption followed eruption, the ash came to be yellow and then muddy red.
Effects at Kodiak Island
The nearest witnesses to the effects of the explosions were on Kodiak Island at least a hundred miles away. On that sunny day of June 6, 1912, a peculiar cloud appeared at about 5 p.m. The only unusual condition indicating that all was not normal was the thunder and lightning storm. This excited comment, especially among natives who had never seen lightning or heard thunder. Within an hour the sunlight was blotted out—an amazing thing in this country where at that time of year there is sunlight round the clock. Then came a few hours of light, which misled the Kodiak Islanders into thinking that it was over. But suddenly darkness fell again, a blackpess that shrouded the countryside, and the fall of ash commenced. You can imagine the fears that were aroused and the forebodings for the future. Shoveling the ashes seemed the only practical thing to do. Even with lanterns close by, a man’s hand could not be seen when held out at arm’s length.
The second and third ash fall came with brief snatches of daylight in between. The light that came temporarily did not relieve the people’s fears. If anything, it made matters worse. The whole country was virtually buried in ash, ash that piled up to the tops of the windows of Kodiak’s dwellings. Imagine the shock this was to the villagers. Again darkness settled down and the people’s fears were worsened. They gathered to talk over the chances for survival and, since very little was known about the source of the trouble, the people grew more frightened. In panic they flocked to the churches.
Some tried to leave the island by ship, the only ship in the harbor, but overcrowding and discord resulted. Had they known what to expect and that people had survived volcanic eruptions much closer than this one, and had they known that it was due to end shortly, they might well have remained in their own homes in comparative comfort. Many, indeed, did not leave Kodiak, and the men of the town controlled the situation with cool heads. Shortly the sun came out and stayed. People returned to their routine way of life, confident that this awesome experience was over. However, a pink glow remained in the sky until July, reminding the villagers on Kodiak Island of this outstanding event in their lives. Reconstruction of the ash-covered countryside began immediately. The first impression was that this would be an almost impossible job, but as people pulled together and worked hard, the situation was soon greatly improved.
The first thought was that plant life would be dead and that Kodiak Island would never be green again. The heavy ash packed down from twelve to twenty inches deep. After a year, however, plant life began to show itself, and after three years it was unbelievable that so much vegetation could appear. Those plants that did survive actually grew much faster and some people got the idea that there was some much-needed fertilizer in the fallen ash. But this was not so. Analysis revealed very little fertilizing agent in the formerly molten lava. Various fertilizers were used in the ash to encourage plant growth, with varying results. It appears that the plants produced from seeds In the ash did not do too well, while those plants that grew up through the ash with their roots in the older soil grew very well indeed. Astounding it was to see plants appearing after seeming to lie dormant for three years. Those parts of the countryside that had been cultivated but not seeded prior to the ash fall remained barren years later, while the other areas produced plant life in profusion.
Trees acted as a stabilizer for the soil. The wind could not blow away the ash soil that fell in the forested areas. The trees also prevented the soil from being carried off by a great flood that went through this valley a few years after the eruption.
A Beautiful Valley
The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is a different and a beautiful valley today. It is approximately sixty miles long by fifty miles wide, Y-shaped, and has somewhere around fifty square miles of fissures in the lava. Trees, flowers, berries and undergrowth are more plentiful than before the eruption and many colorful fumaroles (holes in the lava for escape of steam or other pressures) cover the valley. Whole areas close to the volcanoes are devoid of vegetation. The trees on the walls of the valley in the immediate vicinity of the steam vents are blackened and leafless. The lava area is very, very dark. The whole adjacent area is steamed from the fumaroles. However, in the surrounding area the trees are green and plant life is abundant.
These fumaroles are really safety vents for superheated steam to escape. Ninety-nine percent of the emanations are steam. No great amount of gas escapes now, hence there is little danger of another eruption from these volcanoes. Many minerals are left in the area around the steam vents from the melted, steamed snow, producing a colorful appearance all over the surface of the fumaroles and the area around them, many varied hues. Pink is the predominant color, yellows are plentiful, and greens, growing darker near the fumarole outlet. There has been a quiet release of vapor from these vents from Katmai, Martin, Mageik and Trident volcanoes right up until this time. Visitors to the region have found that they could cook bacon and toast bread in the orifices. The real attraction for visitors, however, is the color display afforded by this remote valley.
One would think the area could be developed as a holiday resort, a district where people might take advantage of healthgiving mineral steam baths. However, the weather in this area is rough and winds and cold rain are frequent. Nevertheless, visitors to this Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes are so thrilled by all they see here, especially when the sun shines, that they scarcely give a thought to the bad weather and rough conditions experienced.
The whole area surrounding the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is now known as the Katmai National Monument, with an area of 2,697,590 acres. Here is a park that is larger than the total area of Connecticut. To the ordinary citizen, however, it is for the most part inaccessible. There are those in Alaska who believe that the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and enough of the surrounding area that is worthy of preservation should be maintained as a National Monument and that the remainder of the area should be opened up to development.
The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes will linger long in the memory of the Kodiak Islanders and those from the outside who have actually visited the spot. Planes now fly regularly over this beautiful valley and passengers are thrilled by the amazing scene. The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is one of those ringside seats from where we can view with awe and reverence the operation and effects of those tremendous forces first set in motion by the great Creator of the universe.
N THEIR way, via ship, Irons the United | States to the Philippines, a married couple t had an experience oi which they wrote: I “During a conversation at our first supper to- [ gether with nine other passengers, we were I asked by a fellow voyager what our destina- | tion and purpose were. In giving the answer, we quickly discerned that not all were happy at the prospect of being inescapably bound to the company o£ Jehovah's witnesses during a long voyage to the Far East. The restrained animosity was manifested by a particularly stanch member of one of today’s popular Protestant sects. Evidently aware of the missionary zeal of Jehovah's witnesses, she suddenly, without the least provocation, asserted that she was older than the two witnesses present and therefore wiser. The majority quickly fell into line with this strong-minded individual so that if even so much as the word ‘Bible’ was mentioned the subject was abruptly 1 changed. It was strange to be with professed Christians at a table where God was banned, "I’ “As the days at sea passed we busied our-selvep, blending periods of study with relaxation on the sun deck. We also began to circulate among the crew members, just saying, at first, Hello, and drawing out their fascinating experiences at sea. Gradually we began to seek out those ’who are deserving’ by discussing the Bible, We prepared for this by bringing along Bible-study aids in several languages.
'j’ “Many of the crew took literature. By the end of the thirty-eight-day journey, a total of thirty-five books and Bibles, thirty booklets and forty magazines were placed. We began making back-calls on our floating territory. Soon Bible studies were started. One bright British subject from Guiana manifested unusual interest. For him, having a Bible study ju&t once a week was completely unsatisfying. We arranged to study in his cabin every other night. One evening he exclaimed to a crew member he had invited to the study that for eleven years he had had a Bible and now, for the first time, he began to understand it. His appreciation kept growing. On our last Bible study he stated that he couldn’t be kept from going ashore to inform his wife, because, as he put it, ‘I can see that it is essential that my wife be instructed so as to keep pace with me,’ Happily, a Bible study has been arranged with her.
“Meanwhile, among the passengers we continually showed kindness. Then unmistakable signs of wanning up began to be shown toward us. We responded by favoring them with talk of God’s kingdom and the new world, but only when a passenger was off by himself or in couples. More literature was placed with all the passengers with the exception of the opinionated lady. So all the passengers and the captain had a copy oi the book From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained. Additionally, a copy of the book was left in the lounge library for future voyagers.
'8’ "On the last morning of the voyage we heard a soft knock. At the door was standing the closest friend of the lady opposed to Jehovah’s witnesses. She came in and said: ‘I wanted to see you privately to say good-by because there’s something I want very much for you to know. All of us have seen you excuse yourselves from the lounge after dinner each evening and later observed you with the Bible books in hand, preaching quietly among the crew members. Now you may think that you made little or no progress among the passengers. -But I want to tell you something: You have made an impression among the passengers that will not be forgotten. Even Mrs. --- whom you know manifested much
…