threshold of one of the most significant religious movements of the ages.

THIS

HIS is all the more true in view of the growing interest of the youth of the world in the problem of Christian unity. To be sure, unnumbered thousands of young people have no thought for the Church. In that respect they are not unlike their fathers. The more serious minded of our young people, however, are giving more thought to the Church than is commonly recognized. By interdenominational conferences and otherwise, the student class in America and elsewhere is evidencing a most wholesome interest in the co-operative work of the churches. They do not express that interest in any widespread enthusiasm for a strictly creedal orthodoxy nor in emotional demonstrations in behalf of sectarianism. But there can be no denying the fact that these same young people have an unprecedented interest in the fundamental realities of a religion that has been stripped of theological and ecclesiastical encumbrances.

In the University of Missouri, for example, there has been organized within recent years a Students' Religious Council. Protestants, Catholics, and Jews are included within the range of this undergraduate experiment in religious fellowship. A Bible College near by is conducted under interdenominational auspices. Four different religious bodies

tion. A similar spirit pervades the religious activities of scores of student bodies all over the country. Interdenominational student pastorates have been inaugurated at Ohio University, the Universities of Pennsylvania, Montana, Maine, Oregon, New Hampshire, and Vermont, as well as in the agricultural colleges of a number of States. One of the most far-reaching experiments in religious unity ever undertaken is about to be introduced at the southern branch of the University of California.

Then, too, a large number of interdenominational churches have been established within recent years on or near many college campuses. People's Church of Michigan State College is a conspicuous example of this method of bringing the students of divers communions into a united service of worship. The Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association lend the influence of their respective organizations to the building of the Church Universal. The World's Student Christian Federation, with branch organizations in nearly half a hundred different countries, is in reality an interconfessional young people's movement in the interest of a united Church. Among theological students of the United States there is a well-organized Interseminary Movement that brings together candidates of a half hundred denominations.

influences?

In Canada there is a United Church. In America, in Europe, in the Near and Far East there are strong church federations. The Methodists of Great Britain and the Presbyterians of Scotland are moving toward the healing of their own denominational divisions. The Universalists and Congregationalists of America are just now conferring upon a plan for the unification of their respective communions. In Australia, in New Zealand, and in Africa the churches are developing a consciousness of unity. At Stockholm, two years ago, the representatives of one hundred and three denominational bodies of thirty-one communions came together for a Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work. On August 3, the day on which this article is published, the World Conference on Faith and Order assembles in Lausanne. This ecumenical gathering is representative of eighty-seven nationwide communions. The "Call to Unity" under which the Conference meets summoned Christians all over the world to keep in mind "that the Church should reflect the unity of God."

The churches of the world are coming together. The converging roads yet to be traveled are long, but the first few steps have been taken. The rest of the journey will be covered in time.

NE dark night the yacht Kaimiloa lay off Fanning Island wallowing in the troughs of an angry sea, storm-tossed and without anchorage, seeking in vain the guiding lights from the safe harbor of this small and little frequented isle. All attempts to gain communication with the radio station failed. So few ships ever called at this cable station, where the Canadian and Australian cables meet, that authorities did not keep their harbor lights piercing the darkness. And light must be had to make safe anchorage.

Then Fred Roebuck, the radio operator on the yacht, decided to get amateur radio to aid him.

He got in touch with San Francisco, thousands of miles distant, and asked an amateur who answered him for help. The short wave-lengths of amateur radio were to be his salvation. Fifteen minutes after the query for help had been received in San Francisco, another amateur in another part of the city was out of his bed, and dashing for the nearest telegraph and cable station. There he handed in a cable for the lonely South Sea isle, asking the authorities to flash on their harbor lights. Not till the cable had been despatched, witnessed by his own eyes, did the amateur go home. And more than six thousand miles distant, in a stormy sea, the yacht Kaimiloa, on a South Sea geological cruise, saw flashing out of utter darkness, the bright beams of a harbor light, which soon guided them into safe anchorage.

THI

HIS is an example of the type of friendship that amateur radio has developed among the young men of the world. Fostered in the United States and Canada, international friendships have multiplied rapidly among the men. whose hobby is the furtherance of the science of radio.

John Grinan, nj-2PZ, of Jamaica, British West Indies, is host several times a week at international parties held over the air. To these affairs he invites radio amateurs from every part of the globe. There, friendships are made, and the gospel of international good will is promoted.

Colonel Clair Foster, nu-6HM, of Carmel, California, has been a guest many times. One night, he writes me, there will be besides the host: oz-2AE, R. J. Patty of Wellington, New Zea

land; another amateur, ek-4DBA, of Germany; and himself. Another night ac-2FF, G. W. Fiske of Tientsin, China; nu-2CG, C. S. Hallock of Brooklyn, New York; or ef-8YOR, Professor Reyt of the University of Orleans, France; may join in. Thus these parties are formed, with radio amateurs from a number of countries present. As John Grinan, who is the owner of a sugar plantation in Jamaica, says, "It is just a case of name your country."

NA

ATURALLY you ask what is this all about and what do they talk about over distances varying from one to twelve thousand miles?

These men, for the most part still in their twenties or early thirties, will sit at their radio transmitters for hours at a stretch, be it daylight or far into the night. Always the time element must be taken into consideration in international work of this kind. By means of the Morse Code they will discuss current topics, or they will inquire about affairs in their respective countries. More naturally they will discuss radio problems.

Since the earliest attempts at radio transmission there have been amateur experimenters who have delved deeply into the problems of wireless communication by means of the dot and dash or the human voice. The class grew in number when Marconi showed the world what could be done with his successful transatlantic signals. That num

ber has grown until there are now well over twenty thousand boys, young men, and middle-aged men, including a few young ladies, who are interested in the scientific side of radio, and especially transmission. This does not include the millions who listen nightly to concerts for entertainment. These amateur scientists, many of whom know a great deal more than numerous professional radio engineers, are to be found not only on the North American continent, although the bulk reside there, but they can be located in eighty different lands. Their signals penetrate from the frozen north of Aklavik, Northwest Territories, Canada, to the mountains of Afghanistan, from California to Borneo and the antipodes, from England to the jungles of Brazil; in fact, there are very few places on the face of the earth where there are no radio amateurs at this date.

Their progress from the early days of the science to the present has been rapid, but not always easy. Since 1912, when they were assigned to a certain territory in the air, they have been allowed a considerable amount of freedom in the United States and Canada, and at a later date in England, France, and Australia. Other countries, especially those of Europe, have been very strict in their attitude of keeping radio exclusively a government utility.

How did the amateur achieve to international communication, or even transcontinental intercourse? Handi

capped in practically every case by lack of funds, he modeled his first apparatus on those in commercial use, except that it was much smaller and less powerful. He had to adapt it through ingenious inventions to the wave-lengths assigned him by the London Conference in 1912. Deemed useless in those days, wave-lengths from 200 meters down were granted him. To-day 100 meters and below is the most valuable air space in the eyes of governments and commercial communication companies the world over. To settle the allotment of this area in the ether, is the main object of the international conference on radio to be held in Washington this October.

During the years of development, in fact in 1914, some far-sighted men in New York, "fool-visionaries" they were called, organized the American Radio Relay League, and looked forward to transcontinental talks, and perhaps even international talks. The League grew from a handful till to-day it embraces practically every one who calls himself a radio amateur, with a world-wide membership of over 18,000.

B

UT it was not till November 17, 1923, that the amateur was able to really startle the public. He had done many noteworthy things up to that time, feats which had brought him high praise from governments and commercial concerns alike, but this was something different.

Two years of consistent testing had shown that the best American and Canadian stations could send signals into Europe. There they were received weakly by amateurs in Britain, Holland, and France. In North America the signals of some of the most daring of European amateurs could also be heard at times. Then like a thunderclap came

What scalps were to Indians

the signs on this wall are to an amateur radio operator. This is the station of Elmer Burgman, of Hollywood, California. The wall signs are the call numbers of stations all over the world with which he has been in communication. The pins on the little globe indicate the locations of his aerial friends

spanned "the pond" and every day saw new achievements made and records broken. Internationalism had the amateur by the throat. Ilo and Esperanto were advocated, and an international organization was mooted. Enthusiasm

intoxicated all. It could be seen on the face of every radio man. It pervaded everything. Amateur radio was struck with a tornado which swept country after country into the growing list of international contacts.

Connecticut, communicated with Leon Deloy of Nice, France, on a wave-length of 100 meters on that eventful 17th of November.

Felicitations flowed back and forth between these two men, and also John Reinartz of Hartford, who connected as well. From the United States Government and the radio fraternities, the French Government signal division, and French radio circles they came. Even though the contact had been prearranged by wire, and Deloy had visited the United States that summer to study American methods, it set the amateur world afire.

Before the year had finished Japan had been in contact with Tacoma, Washington. Many Eastern amateurs had

comes, when seated in a cozy room, with a small radio receiver in front of you, a telegraph key ready at hand, and close by a radio transmitter, built by your own hands, ready to be switched on the air with the controls at your right, you suddenly hear the shrill hightoned dots and dashes which spell a faroff Australian station, calling for a conversant in North America? And you clamp your ear-phones more tightly on your head, so as to hear more distinctly. The signals abruptly stop, after a cheery go ahead sign has been sent, and you turn your switches, while with a clammy hand you start to reel off on the telegraph key the dots and dashes which if heard in the distant antipodes, will tell the "Aussie" that you are answering him.

Your excitement is gradually controlled by your better sense, for a cool head must be maintained to make the dots and dashes readable over the odd ten thousand miles. You also send a hopeful "k" denoting go ahead, switch off the transmitter, and gripping the two dials on your receiver, listen with all that is in you for the faint peeps which will denote success or failure. Your excitement is at its height. Beads of perspiration stand out on your forehead, and your fingers stick to the dials, cold and clammy.

And then you hear him calling YOU. It is, in all truth, the thrill that comes but once in a lifetime. For you have been heard from your room in New York, Chicago, Winnipeg, St. Louis, Portland, or San Francisco, wherever you are, you have been heard more than ten thousand miles away, and are about to start a conversation with a chap at the other end of the world!

on the wave-lengths used for commercial ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communication channels.

Here was a place in the air, where distances of thousands of miles could be spanned by means of very low power, light and easily built apparatus. The amateur wanted to test his discovery, and volunteered his services to Arctic expeditions, exploration parties into the jungles of Brazil, the wilds of Abyssinia, the South Pole, anywhere.

All the Macmillan Arctic expeditions, the Canadian Government annual ships to the far north, the Detroit Arctic Airplane parties, the Ross whaling expedition to the Antarctic, the Hamilton-Rice expedition into the interior of Brazil, the Chicago "News" expedition to the wilds of Abyssinia, the visit of the Pacific fleet to Australia and New Zealand, the San Francisco to Tahiti yacht races, Zane Grey's yacht, and many other private, governmental, and commercial undertakings were and are being kept in contact with civilization through amateur radio.

Paris. Nine countries were represented by illustrious personages in the government service and the radio engineering profession. The formation of an international organization similar to the one in America was recommended. A year later, on April 17, 1925, with representatives of twenty-three nations present, the International Amateur Radio Union was founded in Paris, France. Its officers were chosen from the United States, England, France, and New Zealand, and its first members came from every part of Europe, from America, Canada, Newfoundland, Iraq (by airplane), Uruguay, foundland, Iraq (by airplane), Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, and Japan.

Communication with lands far distant has become an every-day occurrence. Those who have been more fortunate than others, either through more skill or more patience, or whatever makes them more successful, are looked upon as leaders in a new field-that of long-distance communication. Foremost, yet one of the youngest, is a student of Stanford University, one Brandon Wentworth.

This young man, throughout his college life, and for a number of years prior, has played with radio. At Stanford he was the operator of the University's station, which represented for some time the Bureau of Standards on the Pacific coast. But from his own station,

located on a hill overlooking San Francisco, he made his name famous the world over. From the very first international contacts he was one of the leaders. The antipodes, Australasia, and Asia were naturally enough his best chances of success. And he has communicated with Borneo, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Johore, French Indo-China, Shanghai, Tientsin, Japan, Alaska, Chile, Brazil, European countries, and plentifully with friends in South Africa. These are but a few of the thirty or more countries to his credit. He has made friendships galore.

To him therefore was accorded the honor of being the first member of a most exclusive radio fraternity-The Worked-All-Continents Club. To attain a place in that society is the aim of every "DX hound," to use a term meaning an amateur interested in long-distance communication.

Founded but a little over a year ago, there are now forty-two members in the Club. They hail from every part of the world from the United States, Canada, Philippine Islands, Australia, Belgium, England, France, Chile, Uruguay, Porto Rico, South Africa, and the Federated Malay States. It is emblematical of the growth of international amateur radio.

I

N this day of publicity, taxes as a payment due the Government are receiving their full measure. There is another side to the question, however, which is little appreciated, since it receives little publicity. That side is the returns we, as housewives and homemakers, get from taxation.

Ever since the Boston Tea Party we like to feel that we know what we are being taxed for. Any tax we may pay has had the approval of those in authority in city, State, or Nation before the tax has to be paid.

Yet every one growls about taxes as one does about the weather, while taxes may be changed if weather cannot. We know not why sunshine follows rain, but we may know why the tax is so much.

The other day before I did my daily marketing I scanned the morning paper hurriedly. However, I took time to look over the monthly "City Milk Report," which occupied a prominent position on the last page. It carried no startling headline such as "Outbreak of Infantile Paralysis Due to Milk" or

"Case of Typhoid Traced to Jones's Dairy." It was in fine print following a few short sentences, which said two dealers were ordered to stop selling milk in January because of the unsanitary conditions surrounding their plants. The conditions surrounding their plants. The report contained the name of each dairy, its score on sanitary conditions, the amount of butter fat the milk contained, and the number of bacteria per cubic centimeter, which is a cube of about one-half inch. I ran the list down for the name of the dairy supplying our corner grocery with milk. There it wasscore 78 per cent, butter fat 4.4, and bacteria 110,000 per cubic centimeter. Surely something was wrong with that dairy, even if its butter fat was high. The number of bacteria was over twice the number allowable under any condition, even though they might be fairly harmless and not disease bearing. A change of milk dealers was imperative. change of milk dealers was imperative. It was my part as a consumer to let the grocer know I couldn't safely use the milk he sold.

When doing my marketing, two or

three days later, I observed several women buying this milk. To one standing near I mentioned the "City Milk Report," and she replied: "I can't see the difference between this and Blank's milk. This is a cent cheaper and has more cream."

Who put the report in the paper? Our city food inspector, who is paid out of the taxes levied in our city. Now every woman in that group paid taxes to maintain that office and to make such inspections as the report shows. This inspector receives a salary in some measure commensurate with his training, as does also the laboratory technician responsible for the findings in the report.

If each of these women only contributed one mill per dollar on assessed valuation of $3,000 property to the maintenance of our Board of Health, she would contribute $3 to this fund. What did these women get for their money? Nothing; because each had made no use of the findings a part of her tax paid for.

The purpose of each of us is to live a peaceful life in our community. We dislike stirring up feeling in our neighborhood because we dislike the cognomen given to such people and because we feel that it is better to let sleeping dogs lie rather than, waking them up, not be able to accomplish anything.

The city ordinances lay down rather stringent rules about the cleanliness of our food stores, both inside and out.

A grocer in the neighborhood was especially careless about the refuse fruit, vegetables, and meat scraps that collected in the store. Sometimes he tried to burn them, and left a sorry mess; sometimes they were collected in buckets, old boxes, and cans until they swarmed with maggots and flies.

This man, coming from a far Western country town, was accustomed to no regulations for the maintenance of sanitary surroundings, yet he had a large trade, being an affable and pleasant man to meet. Why? Because the women were willing to telephone in their orders and not take time to come into the store to see if the ordinary laws of sanitation were carried out.

After repeated calls to the city Board of Health and threat to report to the State Board, action was taken. The inspector threatened to close the store, and conditions became more nearly sanitary.

WHY

HY did it take so long? Our city inspectors hold their positions many times through personal and political preferments, and not because of their willingness to enforce laws. For the sake of the position, they are blind to irregularities of sanitation and fail to hold such food dealers to ordinary sanitary standards.

Yet we as taxpayers provide salaries for the Board of Health and its employees. Shall we sit idly by and see our money wasted?

We talk a great deal about thrift, yet there isn't much of it practiced in taxation. Is it any wonder our taxes are high? Such conditions bring on much of our ill health in cities, which calls for more money to counteract the result of poor law enforcement. Public health may be purchasable, but most of the time we are getting shoddy goods for the price.

In talking this over with me a woman said: "All this is true; there are many ways in which we as housewives do not insist on a just return from taxation, but there are also very many important returns to be had from a few cents extra taxation."

Then she went on to tell about the children in her neighborhood having to cross the street-car tracks twice, as well

How many of us know exactly what the Pure Food Law does for us? I remember less than ten years ago a woman came to my office with a most anxious look on her face. She wanted to know how she might buy really pure foods. It took some minutes to convince her that Uncle Sam was really looking after that when it came to most of our groceries, though we did have to look out for those we bought locally. Even local supplies are now so well protected by State laws that we have little to fear. As housewives, we must do our part by learning to read the label on any commodity, and especially the fine print underneath, in which the real contents are made known.

We should also note the weight or volume of the package.

Legislation by Congress has been proposed to allow the use of glucose and corn sugar to sweeten articles of food without its being mentioned on the label. Since both glucose and corn sugar are valuable foods, though about one-half to two-thirds as sweet as ordinary sugar, this bill ought to be made a part of the law. When the food laws were passed in 1906, we did not know as much about these foods as we do now, which accounts for the discrimination rather than assigning to them deleterious effects which we have inferred. We ought to have laws. built on the best scientific information if we are to be taxed for their enforcement.

There is some agitation to-day about showing on the label of our canned goods just when and where they were packed. Whether such a clause should be included in our food laws is a question yet. Since we know that some of

the vitamins in canned food lose their value to the body through aging and storage, it may seem best to have this information on the can. However, we ought to have the best of scientific evidence upon which to build the law.

IN

N our neighboring city the water supply was a common topic of conversation because of its hardness and the quantity of iron it contained.

If you took a bath, your wash-cloth was henceforth yellow. If by chance you rinsed your clothes in it, a saffron hue was the inevitable result. Your tea was purple, owing to the reaction between the iron in the water and the tannic acid in the tea.

In short, any group of women could find the water supply an inexhaustible topic of conversation, since each home became a chemical laboratory in which it was chief reagent.

The salesmen for the soap factories mentioned this city as one of the cleanest and most intelligent in the United States, using as a criterion that the civilization of a country may be judged by the amount of soap it uses.

Now the women of this town knew they used so much soap because the water was so hard that almost nothing in common use would break it. They also knew how the men of the town voted bonds for a new city building, paving, and another bridge over the river, which made the town more accessible to two or three influential farmers who came to trade. Never once did any one mention the possibility of a better water supply for the city.

Then the women woke up to the fact that if there was to be any improvement in the water they would have to get busy. If there were taxes for bonds to build bridges for the use of only a few, why not taxes for bonds for a new water system.

Of course, the women put it over. Now the yellow streak has gone from the town's laundry and tea is the right color for the particular people. The soap salesman sells much less than half he sold before. The taxpayers, instead of buying soap, are paying for bonds, which has insured a safe and soft water supply to the city.

Can you measure just in soap the returns such taxation brought to those housewives?

There has been before Congress from time to time in the last decade a bill trying to give the user of textiles as much protection as the consumer of foods. Many believe this would be a very valuable law from the standpoint of the consumer. It is only another way of getti