Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 5, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 May 1931 — Page 4

PAGE 4

-HOW AMD

The Pope Leads "It therefore is absolutely necessary to reconstruct the whole economic system by bringing it back to the requirements of social justice so far as to insure a more equitable distribution of the united proceeds of capital and labor.” In these memorable words Pope Pius XI in his radio address Friday added the unique power of the Roman Catholic church to the world movement for a fairer division of wealth for labor. • Coming from the head of what has been described as the most conservative as well as the largest organization on earth, the pope's Indictment of the present social system is revolutionary in the highest sense of that term: “In the past there has been, beyond question, an excessive and unjust disproportion of the commodities of life between capital and labor, for on the one hand immense riches are accumulated in the hands of the few, while on the other the proletariat, who form a multitude beyond all counting, have nothing of their own save their hands and the sweat of their brow.” He struck at one of the most vicious premises of the capitalist system by declaring: "Work is not any kind of salable commodity, but one in which the human dignity of the working man always must be respected.’’ Parts of the declaration of papal policy—for instance, that differences in social conditions are decreed divinely and must not be abolished—are of a nature that many can not accept. But those parts are secondary to his main contention that: “Free and often unbridled competition has been succeeded by the exaggerated concentration in the hands of a few of the whole economic power, not only of single nations, but of the entire world, and this concentration and this power degenerate into tyrannical despotism.” Against such tyranny of the rich and the mighty, the Christian religion was founded. Jesus, the carpenter, spoke to and for the workers. Too often the princes of the church have forgotten. Now Pius XI, like Leo XIII forty years ago, speaks in the tradition of the great Jewish and Christian prophets for the oppressed masses. If the conflict between capital and labor is to find a just and peaceful settlement, the churches must help. To their credit the religious leaders of America—Protestant, Jewish and Catholic—are working increasingly for that social justice. More Light on the World War A flood of material continues to appear, throwing light on various aspects of the World war. General Pershing’s memoirs Just have been published. Now the Saturday Evening Post and Liberty are running articles. In Liberty, Sidney Sutherland describes the exploits of German spies during the war, with special emphasis on their activity in the United States. This is an important field of war history, but in the opinion of Sutherland’s articles unfortunately are -written in the spirit of wartime propaganda. Moreover, nothing is said of what Great Britain and France were doing in this country between 1914 and 1917. It is to be hoped that Liberty will allow some authoritative writer to present the other side of the picture. In the Saturday Evening Post, the late Mr. Lansing makes a most important contribution on American neutrality during the war. The war-time secretary of state declares that we had much more trouble with Britain than with Germany, that Mr. Page did his best to block our protests to Britain, and that if Germany had not resumed submarine warfare we probably would have drifted into war with the English. German stupidity on the submarine issue, he points out, revolutionized the destiny of world affairs. A Promising Ghost President Hoover has appointed George A. Hastings of New York City as “ghost writer” and research assistant. This choice will have to be ranked with our chief executive’s better selections, such as the late Joseph P. Cotton, undersecretary of state, and Sanford Bates, director of federal prisons. Hastings is no pollyanna publicist, no dispenser of political syrup, and no mere yes-man. He is a wellinformed student of social and political problems, a man of long experience in responsible executive positions in social work, and a person of enlightened outlook. If one may Judge from the past. HastiiTgs will dig up .some eye-openers for the President and will state them in language which the people of the United States can understand. High or Low Wages It took almost a year after the onset of the current business depression before the advocates of deflation found their voices. The country had been pretty well sold on the desirability of high wages and short working hours; it is only recently that men of prominence have begun to assert that the depression will not end until wages are slashed and hours of labor are lengthened. However, if it took a long time for this claim to be made manifest, there are plenty of signs that we are going to hear a good deal of it from now on. One by one. the deflationists are getting vocal. Furthermore ,in one factory after another, they are making their influence felt materially. One of the sanest criticism of this attitude was provided recently by Glenn Frank, president of the University of Wisconsin. Writing in the May issue of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen's Magazine, Mr. Frank remarks: "Following the war, some of the more far-sighted leaders of American business and industry adopted anew credo that said a stable and widely distributed prosperity and healthy industrial development required high wages, short hours and low prices. This ran contrary to the naive business thinking of earlier generations that said low wages, long hours, and high prices made for maximum profit. “But outstanding industries throughout the United States proved by their balance sheets that high wages, short hours, and low prices were good not only for the masses, but also good for the manufacturers. And ■we are in the grip of depression now, not because we folowed this new credo of business, but because we did not follow it generally enough or apply It far enough.” Then, turning directly to the lower wages crowd, he adds: "The inflationists of yesterday brought the stock market to collapse. The deflationists of today will bring our entire business system to collapse fi they succeed in servicing the majority of American business men. 'bankers, and industrialists to their point of view. In speak with brutal frankness—and the times call for that sort of speaking—the deflationists are,

The Indianapolis Times <4 SCRII'PSHOWAHI) NEWSPAPER) Owned and published dally (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Time* Publishing Cos.. 214-220 Well Maryland Street. Indianapolis. Jnd. Price In Marion County. 2 cents a copy; elsewhere. Z cents—delivered by carrier. 12 cents a week. BOYD GUBLEY. ROY W. HOWARD. FRANK G. MORRISON. Editor President Business .Manager PHONE— Riley NVU SATURDAY. MAY 16. IMI. Member of United Press, Scrlpps-Howard Newspaper Alliance. Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

in my judgment, little men riding in big saddles, seeking to lead a business army to which they have nothing to bring except the strategy of their fear. They are aig business men who have fallen short of being BIG business men.” What About Safety? Six hundred fifty pilots are flying 133,000 miles a day on America’s scheduled air mail and passenger lines. They are the best of the country's 15,000 licensed pilots. On them directly depends the safety of hundreds of passengers and tons of mail every day and night. Yet, like children, they should be seen and not heard. At least that is the way their employers, the airline operators, appear to feel about it. The operators just have vetoed a proposed conference between these pilots and the department of commerce. The government had expected to reap valuable suggestions for the regulation and maintenance of the airline out of these pilots’ knowledge—the knowledge of experience, gained only by riding at the controls day after day and night after night over the airways. The commerce department asked the operators if they would send pilot representatives to the conference. A few agreed. Others said they would not. The majority didn’t even bother to answer the department's letter; The meeting has been canceled. At this stage of flying, the combined wisdom of everybody in the business is none too much. The pilot—the human element—is admitted to be still the most important factor in aviation. For the operators to close their ears to his suggestions seems to us a rather stupid form of bigotry.

The Real Need Speaking in New York, Warden Lewis E. Lawes of Sing Sing prison showed that vision and that command of the crime problem which have placed him in the vanguard of intelligent prison administrators. In New York and elsewhere the public is pledged to vast expenditures to build greater and better prisons to house convicts. Lawes, however, emphasized that what we need to do is to be excited about getting more men out of prison. Certain types of convicts need long incarceration in conventional prisons, perhaps for life. But about half of them would be better off—and society, as well —if they were not behind walls at all. What they need is probation or parole. As Warden Lawes well says: “The liberal use of parole and a broad and effective probation for criminals not yet sentenced will do more toward solving the prison problem than the $100,000,000 we expect to spend on new prisons and reformatories.”

In Oily Exile Henry M. Blackmer still is clinging-to the oily Liberty bonds that caused his exile from his native land. He is planning to fight through the United States supreme court the $60,000 fines imposed on him for his refusal to return from France and testify in the famous Teapot Dome trials. Blackmer is one of the oil magnates who slipped hastily out of the country in the fall of 1923, when the senate investigation of Teapot Dome was beginning to uncover facts about the Continental Trading Company and its mysterious transactions in oil and Liberty bonds. Finally the government caught up with him, but it never succeeded in bringing him back. He is the only one of all the group who did not return the Liberty bonds parceled out so secretly after they had manipulated oil prices. There would be satisfaction in seeing Blackmer pay for his part in the sordid story of Teapot Dome. The cruiser Chicago soon is to be named the flagship of the United States fleet. On the assumption, perhaps, that the name will Instill fear in the hearts of the enemy. A university of golf is being proposed for southern England. Courses there, naturally, will cover lots of ground. ?W..— You don't have to wear a stiff shirt, observes the office sage, to put on a front.

REASON BY FREDERICK

THE meeting of the international chamber of commerce, held In Washington, brought forth the old familiar formula for world relief, the same we have heard ever since the war. nun Europe’s representatives to this meeting were united in the opinion that it was the duty of Uncle Sam to hold the sack for the late war, forgive everybody’s debts and, if necessary to bring a smile to the calcimined countenance of Europe, issue meal tickets to everybody from the Ural mountains to the English channel. nun THE demands of the European brethren are mounting with the years and we shall be fortunate if by the year 1940. we shall not have been solemnly adjudged guilty of having started the recent world conflict. nun The interesting thing about these past masters of the mooching art is that in all matters in which the interests of Europe are involved they are a united band of loving brothers, in fact, the English were particularly active at this Washington meeting in presenting Germany’s desires for a reduction of debts. nun And it was just a little while ago that Germany had John Bull backed against the channel and was slamming iron into his slats and Mr. Bull was beseeching Uncle Sam to hurry to his rescue, lest he perish and with him all that is sweet and beautiful in life. nun It is almost time for somebody, speaking for the United States, to hand these European panhandlers the word with the bark on it. and this word is that we have made the last reduction of war debts, also that we are a nation, and not a charity ball. • • m ALREADY we have reduced these war debts beyond the generosity of any other nation in history. We reduced the British debt 20 per cent, the French debt 50 per cent and the Italian debt 70 per cent. And still they howl! m n m It has reached the point where a due regard for our own national self respect demands that we let this band of beggars know that we have sense enough to see through them; we should let them understand that we know them as thoroughly as if we had strolled through them with a lantern! n n • If Germany had won that war there would have been no debt reduction; she would have planted her hobnailed boots on the form of the defeated nations until the last cent was paid, as she did after the Franco-Prussian war.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy SAYS:

Only One Reason for the Depression Will Stand the Scrutiny of Future Generations and That Is Lack of Leadership. THE national executive committee of the American Legion recommends that President Hoover call a non-political conference to seek a solution for unemployment and depression crises. This recommendation was embodied in a report of the special unemployment committee, which declared that continued inaction might lead to “dire results.” The report also said that a survey of 10,000 Legion posts indicated that more than 6,000,000 persons were out of work and that approximately 750,000 ex-service men were among them. There are supposed to be about 45,000.000 workers in this country. If the Legion’s estimate is correct, general unemployment would amount to about 13 per cent, while unemployment among ex-service men, of whom there are about 4,000,000, would amount to more than 18 per cent.

Improvement Seen WHILE we’re on the subject of depression, it is interesting to know that New York City employes will not be asked to contribute a portion of their pay to Mayor Walker's relief committee after June 1. Where this committee assisted 40,000 persons when it was organized, it now is assisting only 24,000, with the number constantly decreasing. Though the situation is far from what one could wish, there are unmistakable signs of improvement. So, too, there are signs that it never was as bad as some people thought. Farmers, for instance, have not accepted anywhere nearly all the cash appropriated in their behalf by congress. Os the $45,000,000 provided to buy seed and fertilizer, less than $39,000,000 has been used; of the $lO,000,000 for “farm rehabilitation,” only little more than half has been used; and of the $10,000,000 to assist agricultural credit associations, less than $500,000 has been used. u We Lack Leadership IN condemning the concentration of wealth and certain radical tendencies, Pope Pius puts his finger on two basic evils of the age. Not only here in America, but throughout the world, modern commerce has given birth to a money aristocracy which is thoroughly incapable of handling its own power. Radical tendencies, especially as manifest in outbreaks of unintelligent discontent, are the direct and unavoidable results of this condition. As many reasons have been advanced for the depression as for the World war, but only one will stand the scrutiny of future generations and that is lack of leadership. Our so-called best minds are a little too hysterical still, just as they were a little too opimisic in 1928 and 1929. It is ridiculous that money should be avalable at 2 or 3 per cent for that sublimated poker game known as Wall Street when legitimate business can’t get what it needs for 6. It is equally ridiculous that we should be so worried over a wheat surplus, with thousands of people actually hungry.

Bottom Side Up According to the latest blurb of the press agent, Charlie Chaplin wants to be screened as an Algerian gangster. Such a role fits perfectly with the bottom side up performance which seems to be going on everywhere. Toscanini, conductor of New York’s Philharmonic Symphony orchestra, goes back to tlaly, puts on a concert in Bologna, refuses to play the Fascist hymn on artistic grounds and gets beaten up; the chancellor of London university not only admits visiting speakeasys while he was in New York, but sees nothing wrong in it, and an Ohio court denies the right of colleges to dismiss students who flunk. nun Let’s Get Frivolous SUCH topsiturviness makes one long for light and frivoluous infcidents, like the discovery of another Egyptian tomb, or the report of scientists that a crab has crawled through the Suez canal in twentynine years, or the debate on birth control recently staged between Mrs. Sanger and Chief Justice Russell of Georgia. As the father of eighteen children, how could the chief justice know anything about birth control? St St tt Provoking War SIX HUNDRED SEVENTY airplanes converge on Dayton for a great war game. Among other stunts they will play at bombarding New York. New York can be very thankful that they are playing, though even that has its serious side. As long as we play at war, war will be probable. Harmless as this gathering of man-birds may seem, no one with the slightest sense can misconstrue its forecast. The conflict of 1914 was largely the by-product of those spectacular maneuvers which had intrigued Germany and scared the rest of Europe for years, and today we are matching seeds of strife every tune we make mimic war. Are children who have one parent in common half brothers and sisters or step brothers and sisters? Half brothers and sisters have one parent in common. Step brothers and sisters have neither parent in common. By whom was the novel, “Steel Decks,” written? James Brendon Connolly. How many American consuls are there in Spain and what is the name and address of the American consul general? There are eleven American consuls in different parts of Spain. The American consul-general is Nathaniel B. Stewart, Barcelona, Spain. What is the derivation bnd meaning of Boldizar? It is a form of the Slavic nanje Boltazar, derived from a Persian word meaning treasure master.

BELIEVE IT or NOT

m IP l i•• Bridgeport. Cowv. ililMJ t L 3 4 /MAS NOT MISSED A WORLDS jjl smce IWyS’lE[> * - READ EACH AND every one of The I BARREL Cs -ftttTigT&KdV feet Wide) \ 140,000 VOLUMES ANO 10,000 MSS . I USED AS A HOUSE - Falcorver. N.y, 1 919 -INthe USRARV , IT HOUSED THREE PEOPLE AND A PET DOG - ~ ' 0 , .s**3 0k US 1, Kips Fmitrm SjrrtteaU. Ik.. Qr—i Brtt&ia rtfblp rwerved, 1 *

Following is the explanation of Ripley’s “Believe It or Not” which appeared in Friday’s Times: Ludwig II was born with a Beard—Ludwig (Lajos) 11, last king of Hungary ana Bohemia, was born with a beard (1506). He succeeded to the throne at the age of 10, and perished in the waters of a river while fleeing

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE— Widely Varied Diet Is Found Best

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN, Editor. Journal of the American Medical Association and of the Health Magazine. THERE are ten important minerals involved in human nutrition. Among the most important of these is calcium. There is some evidence that the minerals taken into the body must be balanced in relationship to one another unless harm is to result. Prolonged giving of calcium to children is not advisable unless the calcium is accompanied by a physiologic equivalent of phosphorus. The dangers of a deficiency of calcium in the body have been proved to be real. In addition to calcium, the diet must contain iodine, iron, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, sulphur, chlorine, potassium and sodium. Each one of these mineral sub-

Times Readers Voice Their Views

Editor Times —Well, well! Are the dear people just waking up to the fact that the public utilities have been gouging them systematically? That has been going on for several years and will not stop unless public opinion is aroused and a determined effort made to corral these rampant public (?) servants. An editorial in the Indianapolis Star some time ago gave the illuminating information that our philanthropic light company had cleaned up a cool 34 per cent on an investment of ten million. According to our state laws, a 7 per cent return is considered very fair, I believe. So how in the world did they hook the other 27 per cent, unless they are overcharging the consumer to that extent? Recently we had the wonderful spectacle of a million dollar coming out going up, or some such partygiven by the head of one of the largest public utilities in the country. It evidently took plenty of “fast” meters to make up this million. The whole trouble is the state of apathy which seizes the consumer unless the situation becomes so un-

X4.

AISNE OFFENSIVE May 16

ON May 16, 1917, the Germans, in a determined effort to secure the initiative, launched a powerful attack on a front of two and a half miles northeast of Soissons. They attempted to break through the French lines north and northwest of Laffaux Mill, where the French seriously threatened the whole German position as far north as La Fere. So huge were the masses of troops thrown by the Germans against the French lines that at several points the French were driven back by sheer force of numbers, but coun-ter-attacks immediately organized enabled them to regain lost ground. The following day the Germans hammered away at the counterattacks, especially on the Chemin des Dames. As one correspondent describes the situation: ‘'The French advance was desperately opposed from the first, and it has been possible to extend it only slightly, but the chief end has been fully attained. “The tide of the German assault swells up, splashes over a piece of trench here and there, is broken, and in its ebb leaves terrible human wreckage to mark one more failure,’*

On request, sent with stamped addressed envelope, Mr. Ripley will furnish proof of anything depicted by him.

after the disastrous battle of Mohacs (1526). Reference—“ History of Hungary and Bohemia.” The Saloon of the Desert— Pulque, or. pulque fuerte, is the national beverage or the Mexican natives. The maguey plant, one of the agave Americana species,

stances is associated definitely with certain conditions of growth, development, and resistance to disease. The choosing of a proper diet is not a matter of chance. In laboratories of research, attempts are being made through the feeding of animals to determine the relationships of the important ingredients to each other, but all the experiments then must be carried over to actual feeding of children and of adults to determine just how these factors are concerned in the human being. The human being does not make his diet out of a mixture of elementary substances; instead, he eats foods grown by nature and which have been found through hundreds of years of experience to be suitable as a part of the diet. Were it not for the fact that nature builds these food substances

bearable that somebody lets out a yelp. There is no use putting up the argument that these commodities have decreased greatly in proportion to what they were years ago. The ultimate consumer does not want to lose sight of the fact that the cost of producing these services has decresed ten times more than the decrease in charge and rates. And the tendency is to keep right on raising them. Every American home is entitled to the benefit of these modern conveniences, and excessive rates are bound to injure those least able to stand it. TIMES READER. Editor Times—Although I am a humble laborer, and my opinion amounts to nothing, I wish to comment on your editorial of April 9, Prohibition and Profit. I think your plan on the liquor question is the most sensible I have read. In fact, it is so sensible it never will be tried, because that undobutedly would take away all the graft and that is something our so-called 100 per cent politicians and our Auti-Saloon League will not tolerate. There is one phase in which your plan doesn't go far enough. When our country goes wet, which it undoubtedly will, what shall we do with our home manufacturers? They won’t stop the sale of malt, and beer is made from malt at the rate of about 3 cents a quart, and the government couldn’t sell that cheap. So under your plan we still would have the home manufacturer. I think it would be a good plan to make it lawful to manufacture beer and wine in homes, since it is cheaper and will be done anyway under any law. Then let the government distill and sell the hard liquors at cost. The moralists will faint when they think of the idea of the government making breweries out of homes, but let them remember that 67 per cent of the saloon day beer is drunk today, manufactured in the homes, and they are our homes anyway. TIMES READER. To Omer S. Whiteman —So there is one of your type left in Indiana. Didn’t bigotry, intolerance and “100 per cent Americanism” nearly ruin Indiana's fair name a few years ago. Because The Times has nerve enough to tell the truth, you would insult her policies. You say, “Liquor-owned, liquorbesmirched, liquor-controlled nation.” That is exactly what we face today. People who won’t see have created gangland, the spot, the hip flask, the kitchen, bathroom and attic

1-4 17 Reglafered D. 8. 11 Y Patent Offlca RIPLEY

yields a juice which is called aguamiel. When this juice is fermented for ten days, it becomes a heavy intoxicating beverage, highly valued for its wholesome and nutritious properties. Reference—“ Encyclopedia Britannica.” Monday—“Another Good One From Abroad.”

successfully, there would be far more disturbance than there now is from diet deficiencies. For this reason, the safest advice for any one at the present time is to eat a widely varied diet, including both raw and cooked quantities of all of the common food substances. The mineral substances are essential not only for building of bone and for replacement of degenerating tissues, but also for stimulation of the formed elements of the blood, for aid in the metabolism, supplying proper combinations leading toward the excretions of undesirable substances, and finally for acting to promote nutrition generally. Only a beginning of the necessaryknowledge concerning the actions of minerals in the body has been secured, and with intensive research on this subject, much more should be learned in the coming years.

breweries, the Kirkland scandal, to disgrace Indiana’s records forever. Millions of dollars tax paid by poor people to support a dry force that can not and never well make America dry. Burdening people in the worst depression America ever saw. Still the wets made all the hard times! You belong to Henry Ford’s clan. You tell how wonderful our dry law ought to be. Well, stand in any grocery on a busy day and count the people who buy malt, caps, yeast and corn sugar. Os course you realize they put bread in bottles to rise and cap it so the dough won’t run out. The bankers say prohibition has created many saving accounts. Then why have so many banks failed? They say the poor man today owns his own home. Then why are the largest loan companies selling these same homes for the mortgages? Say, Omer, either wake up or go to darkest Africa. At least the natives live their own lives. Yours for repeal. I'll add also that I do not drink. MRS. CARROLL COLLINS. Editor Times —Your front page story states that French Strother, reputed “ghost writer” and research man for President Herbert Hoover, is “leaving the service to enter the fiction writing field.” Didn't your correspondent intend to say that he will continue in the fiction writing field? AUGUST CITIZEN.

Can You Do It? Can you write a good letter? A business letter; a letter of application for a position; a letter of thanks; a “bread-and-butter” letter; a letter of condolence? Can you properly address a letter to a judge, a state senator, a Governor, an ambassador? Do you know the proper forms for the heading, introduction, saluation and complimentary close of a letter? All these things are covered in our Washington bureau’s bulletin, The Letter Writer’s Guide. It will help you in any sort of letter writing. Simply fill out the coupon below and mail as directed. CLIP COUPON HERE Department 124, Washington Bureau, The Indianapolis Times, 1322 New York Ave., Washington, D. C.: I want a copy of the bulletin. The Letter Writer s Guide, and inclose herewith 5 cents in coin, or loose, uncanceled United States postage stamps to cover return postage and handling costs. Name St. and No City state I am a reader of The Indianapolis Times. (Code No.)

MAY 16, 1921

SCIENCE —BY DAVID DIETZ—

This Age of Electricity Is a Very Young One. THE present age does not lack names. It has been called the Age of Science, the Age of Steel, the Machine Age. the Age of Synthetic Chemistry and so on. Each of these names is a fair one. for each tells part of the story of the twentieth century. Perhaps as good a name as any is the Age of Electricity. Electric thermostats turn on the furnace in the morning for many householders. Electric alarm clocks wake them up. Electric toasters and percolators tuna out the breakfast toast and coffee. An electric street car or subway takes the master of the house to his daily duties, where electric telephones help speed up the business pace. Shops and factories make use of electric machinery of all sorts. The skyscraper would not be possible without the electric elevator. Electricity rules the amusement world. Tlve theater is lighted by electricity. The talking movie is an electrical product. So is the radio. Television is just around the corner; it is a laboratory achievement, which soon will be put into the hands of the public. New electrical devices promise new wonders. The photo-electric cell htj not only made television possible, but has also paved thway for automatic control of all sorts of machincrv.

Edison and Marconi CHILDREN, growing up in this electrical “press the button” ; age, probably never stop to realize that there was a day when there were no switch-buttons to press. Indeed, most of us forget how very, very young the Age of Electricity is. It is only within the lifetime of the older generation that man has learned to put electricity to work. The pioneers for the most part are still with us. Edison and Marconi are two of them. Os course these masters of applied electricity based their work upon the experimenters of an earlier day. These, in turn, built upon foundations dug by still earlier experimenters. Let us trace the story briefly from the beginning. The first manifestation of electrical force was noted by the Greeks, perhaps as early as 600 B. C. Some authorities credit Thales of Miletus, who lived at about that time, with having first called attention to it. The Greeks noted that when amber was rubbed, it was in some way endowed with the ability to attract light objects to itself. Any one who possesses an amber cigaret holder, pipe-stem, or other object of amber can try the experiment for himself. Rub the amber briskly. It then will pick up little bits of paper, straw, or similar light objects. The Greeks called amber “elektron.” Our word “electricity” comes from it and today we call the smallest unity of electricity “the electron.” a a a South-Pointing Cart From 600 b. c. to ieoo a. and, there is practically nothing to say concerning the development of knowledge of electricity. Men were aware of the power of amber to attract light objects wh~n rubbed. They also knew about the lodestone, or natural magnet, and about the magnetic needle. But no one connected electricity and magnetism. The story of the compass is in itself an interesting one. Apparently the Chinese were the first to understand about the compass. A legend ascribes the first compass to the Emperor Ho-ang-ti, who lived about 2634 B. C. He is credited with having possessed a “southpointed cart.” It was a two-wheeled cart upon which was mounted a pivoted figure of a man with outstretched arm. Apparently a piece of lodestone or natural magnet was attached to the arm, the arm thus acting as a compass needle. Most authorities think that 2634 B. C. is a little early. Ho-ang-ti was a legendary figure to whom it was common to credit all sorts of wonders. Authorities, however, do think that the Chinese understood the properties of the lodestone as early as 1100 B. C. There seems to be reason to believe that many centuries elapsed before the nations of Europe heard of the compass. The compass came into general use as an aid to navigation among European nations in the twelfth century, A. D. The early navigators had little understanding of the true nature of the compass. That did not come until 1600, when Dr. William Gilbert of London published his monumental book, “De Magnete.’ Gilbert introduced anew day in the understanding of electricity and magnetism.

Daily Thought

And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity.—Ezekiel 14:10. Punishment is a fruit that, unsuspected, ripens within the flower of the pleasure that concealed it.— Emerson.