June 1929
261
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
A Truckload of Booze for Siam U NDER the rather strange rule of “diplomatic immun ity,” the foreign diplomats at Washington are per mitted to import liquors for their own (and their Amer ican guests’) consumption. Upon this hangs a remarkable tale. Not long ago the Siamese Legation hired a private truck to haul sixty cases of the stuff from Baltimore to Washington, and the police, not being able to tell the dif ference between Siamese liquor arid other kinds, seized the entire truckload and arrested the unfortunate driver of the truck. Siam has not yet declared war upon the United States for the “insult,” nor has the matter been referred to the League of Nations, but quite an international rumpus has been aroused over the case. The booze has been returned to the Siamese Legation, together with an expression of “regret” for the incident. Hereafter, according to a ruling by the State Department, the foreign diplomat must use his own automobile (which is generally too small), or buy a truck of his own (which is rather expensive), or else hire a truck and drive it him self (which is rather undignified). Doubtless, prohibition agents will now be required, when they arrest a “rum-runner,” to examine his creden tials. If he is found to be a properly accredited “diplomat” from Siam or Liechtenstein, he will be set free and a special police escort will be provided to guard the liquor so as to reach its destination in Washington without dan ger from American “high-j ackers” who are not too care ful about the international amenities. Thus we shall main tain our standing in the “brotherhood of nations.” Truly, the way of the prohibition enforcement officer is hard. The ancient Mosaic Law, written some thirty- five hundred years agoi had a very simple and satisfactory way for solving problems like this one: “One law and one ordinance shall be for you, and for the stranger that so- journeth with you” (Numbers 15:16 R. V.) Will the World Ever Blow Up? R EPUTABLE scientists have estimated variously the energy said to be shut up in a single atom of matter, but all agree that it is enormous. They also have suggested the possibility of getting unlimited power if a way can be found to release this power. This interesting suggestion has badly frightened a few people, who fear that some scientific investigator may stumble upon the secret of releasing atomic power and, being unable to control it, possibly blow up the universe. Now comes Dr. Millikan, who probably knows more about the atom than any other human being, and says that we are safe. No way will ever be discovered to release atomic energy, and consequently the world will not be blown up. Some people will sleep more soundly having this assurance from the noted physicist. But there are some things which not even the learned scientists can do ; they cannot guarantee the world from future catastrophe. “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the. night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements' shrill melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3 :10). Perhaps this great world cataclysm will be accom plished by the release of atomic power. Who knows? At any rate, we know that God stored the atom with its energy, and He can release it when the proper time comes.
in terms of “stunted growth” for the race, will be known better in fifty years from now. The human organism re sists abuse in a remarkable way. Only years of mistreat ment will break down its resistance. But the “harvest” will come at last, in spite of the glib assurances of “journalistic doctors.” The most serious thing about Dr. Wadsworth’s article is the possible influence of her expressed views on smok ing by “adolescents.” She thinks parents should be “toler ant” in the matter, and discourages the policy of “com plete prohibition.” There is only one absolute rule, she says,—adolescents should not smoke before meals! And earlier in the article she sets the adolescent age as be tween eight and.twelve! Here, then, is some more of our twentieth-century “progress.” A supposedly reputable physician, writing for a supposedly respectable magazine whose circulation reaches almost two million copies every week, gravely teaches that only one rule should be imposed upon child smokers between the ages of eight and twelve, and that rule i s : No smoking before meals! It is sufficiently startling that a doctor should express such views, but the most amazing aspect of the matter is that a nationally read magazine could feel safe in passing on these views to its millions of readers. Magazines are not philanthropic affairs; they do not as a rule print what may injure their subscription lists. The ultimate blame, therefore, rests upon the reading public. The world is not improving in some ways, at least Man and the Brute M ANY readers of this magazine have doubtless seen that little Japanese ornament which is often used as a decorative paper-weight; three monkeys sitting to gether, one with his eyes covered, another with hands over his mouth, and the other with ears stopped. The idea is that these three little monkeys hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil. A writer in a leading western newspaper facetiously observes that no human descendants of these particular monkeys have ever been discovered. There is some very profound truth in this observation. The writer of it has hit upon a fundamental difference between man and the animal world. The beast neither hears, sees, nor speaks evil. The very word “evil” indi cates a problem which does not exist for the animal, namely, the problem of morality. No dog ever brought back a stolen bone because his conscience troubled him. No monkey ever repented of his sins. As a matter of fact, no animal is capable of committing “sin,” in the ethical sense of that term. In the physical world, man alone is capable of “moral evil.” It is this awful possibility, for one thing, that puts an unbridgeable chasm between man and the brute. Man can do some things that no animal can do. If you do not believe this statement, go back and read the record of the Loeb and Leopold and Northcott cases. You can teach the parrot to repeat evil words, but you cannot train a parrot to “speak evil.” No animal can deliberately and with predetermined malice poison minds and destroy reputations under the guise of pious inten tion. Only men can do that. “For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and o f things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind : but the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil full o f deadly poison” (James 3:7-8). Here is one difference, at least, between man and the animal.
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