24 Million £ Figures on the advertising costs of the six largest tobacco companies for 1946 are now available. More than $24,- 000,000.00 was expended in newspaper, magazine and radio advertising. Without doubt these companies have realized re turns of many times that amount. Of all the foolish and inane habits ever to fa s t e n themselves upon an intelligent people, cigaret-smoking heads the list. Truth Being Spoken ■J& Occasionally even a scientist of na tional reputation speaks words of real wisdom! A t a recent meeting of Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School, Director Ed mund W. Sinnott made this significant statement: “ Science is modern, popular and dominant. It needs no special plead ers . . . It cannot help being tempted to a certain arrogance and a conviction that the keys of truth are in its hands alone. But logic and reason are no monopoly of science . . . Science regards a human be ing not as a soul which may be saved or lost but as an exquisitely constructed physico-chemical mechanism . . . To many thoughtful minds the gains of science are secondary and superficial things. “ Let us face the fact that what the world must have is a fuller cultivation of those qualities which are best termed spiritual. Whatever we may think as to their origin, as scientists, we should no longer sneer at them; for on their strength depends our own survival. Man leads a double life, o f mind and spirit. If mind is suspect, as in religious fanat icism, man may become a creature only of his instincts; if spirit is suspect, as today when scientific materialism carries such authority, he is in danger of degen erating into a selfish and soulless mech anism. To be a whole man, he must culti vate both parts o f him.” Alcoholic Facts «£* Professor Selden D. Bacon, of the Yale Sociology Department, declares: “ Alcoholism is one of the most prevalent diseases in the nation, with 3,000,000 per sons afflicted, one-fourth of these chronic alcoholics, the rest chronic excessive drinkers. The loss to the general strength and vitality o f society can hardly be esti mated.” Most thinking people will agree that alcoholism is greatly to be deprecated. How is it then that we, as a nation, can allow this monstrous habit to go on un checked, each year enslaving new victims, many o f them our finest youth ? Is it not time to chain this vicious liquor traffic? How a Fly Flies ■■£ A new camera capable of taking 3,000 exposures a second has succeeded in par tially solving the mystery o f how a fly flies. The photographs reveal that the or dinary house fly beats his wings 300 times a second in an action similar to that by which a boat is sculled with a single oar, but the fly keeps his balance with a pair of beating rods that move in the same rhythm as the wings, but in
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By WILLIAM W. ORR, D.D.
for crime is still approximately 1,000,000 a year. More than half of these are re peaters. The cost to the American people is estimated at $10,000,000,000. This does not begin to take into account the broken hearts, wrecked homes and bodies, the tears and heartache that always follow in the wake o f sin. The present director of the F.B.I., Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, is to be commended be cause not only does he gather valid sta tistics, but because he makes excellent recommendations. Among the recommen dations which he has made repeatedly are admonitions to the American people to get back into the church and into the ways of God and to the American home, to discipline children and to live right eously, 6,997 Return As a promotion stunt, Porters’ Furni ture Store of Racine, Wisconsin, loaned umbrellas to 7,000 shoppers marooned by rain. All but three of the shoppers re turned with the umbrellas. Citing this as an example of the inherent honesty of the public, the American Educational Press approved Porters’ experiment heartily, and rejoiced in the results. What a tragedy it is that people will be honest with a furniture store who will not be honest with God! Whereas all of our blessings come from the beneficent hand of an all-wise God, few people ever stop to thank Him from one year’s be J* The various veterans’ organizations are often mentioned in the news. It may not be generally known that there is an excellent association of Christian men called Christian War Veterans of Amer ica. Recently their first national conven tion was held at Waterloo, Iowa, at which time George C. Little of Glendale, California, a Major of World War I, was elected National Commander. Other results of the convention in cluded the adoption of a national con stitution, together with a Statement of Faith, a requirement of which is that veterans must be born again before they are eligible for membership. At present there are 17 chapters situated in vari ous cities from coast to coast. Page Five ginning to the end. Christian Veterans
Flies have been performing this way for many years according to museum of ficials who exhibited as evidence a piece of amber in which a fly had been pre served. The amber was between 50,000,- 000 and 200,000,000 years old, they said. All of which makes us think that if God so provided for flies, how much more will He care for the sons o f men. A 3000-Year Job ¿X The Vatican City newspaper, L ’Ob- servatore Romano, is authority for the estimate that at the present rate of con versions it will take 3,000 years to bring the world to Christ; that the accelerated pace of the last 28 years is responsible for about half a' million conversions a year, but that the task is still very great, with a billion and a half infidels to con vert. This, of course, is the view of the Roman church, while we know from God’s Word that the world will never be converted. The work of evangelism is to continue, and all countries are to be reached with the gospel, but the coming o f Christ does not in any way wait upon this program. Rather, the day when every knee shall bow to Christ and every tongue confess Him as Lord will take place, not by the efforts of missionaries, but by the matchless, peerless, irresist ible power of the returning Christ. Kansas Speaks The State of Kansas has, for many years, been bone-dry and, although it is surrounded by wet states, the accom plishments during the dry era are noth ing short of remarkable. For instance, in the State o f Kansas there are 54 counties without one insane or one feeble-minded person; 96 counties without a poorhouse; 58 counties without a single person in jail, and 56 counties without a single representative in the state prison. Those who sneer at the accomplishments of pro hibition will have a most difficult time laughing this one off. Crimes Cost The Federal Bureau of Investigation issues its crime bulletin semi-annually. The last one reveals that during the first six months of 1947, the rate o f arrests
opposite directions. J A N U A R Y , I 9 4 8
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