Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-13
Higghlights on the Wide World
Excerpts From Newspapers of Other Lands

I per is the equivalent on the average to
half dozen German papers, as regards
circulation, size and influence. Some
German dailies do not have a circula-
ton equal to that of a respectable par
| ISM magazine. Owners of them are some
times editors, chief reporters, compost
tors and machine hands, all in one.
There are hundreds of village news
sheets in Germany, yet the newspaper
reading public Is much greater in Eng
land than IN Germany.
\
Mexico to Provide
Free Marriage CeremOniaIS.
FL Universal. Mexico City.-Entirely
without fees or charges of any sort will
be the marriages Solemnized this year
| before local tribunals of the civil regis
try in the federal district. Contracting
parties TO matrimonial union will SIM
ply meet together before one of these
civil courts, and be duly united at the
| public expense. This innovation is ex-
'pected to be of particular benefit to
poor people, many Of whom have dis
pensed with this formality altogether in
the past because of the assessments de-
manded for the papers, etc.
Besides these free marriages, func-
lions will be ratified by government off,
GERS at the home of one of the uniting
parties, at time suiting the official con-
Venlence, Tor 80 pesos (about Sl5) and
weddings within the federal district at
extraordinary or special hours. will be
authorized and confirmed at charge of
go pesos.
X
"Clergymen Fiddle
While Church Burns"
Weekly Scotsman, Edinburgh.-C. E.
M. Joad, the author and commentator,
speaking at Cambridge before the Ma
t1onal Students Union, painted wildly
the failure Of religion to hold its in
| nuence with the young people Of this
generation. Mr., Joad said, in part:
"Clergymen fiddle while the church
burns. Churchmen are absorbed in con-
troverSieS over dogmatic matters of no
interest to laymen. The times admit
tedly are difficult, but when people seek
consolation in religion they ara RECALLED
with arguments over reservation, and
patter about aumbrieS 0ockers in
churches for Vestments, vessels and the
ltke). Science processes to have no bear
ing on the spiritual truths of religion,
but even without this interference the
spiritual truths of Christianity are
tangled up in mass of absurd and
obsolete forms and liturgies that repel
those who would be glad to grasp the
truth In its essence and purity.
Many young men and women find
1t impossible to accept the old-fashioned
view of religion. While they might &C
cept a religion shorn Of all its useless
and ceremonial membranes, they do
not care to embrace creeds in which so
many trivial points are emphasized to
the exclusion of the vital truths alone
possessing saving grace
1t seems unlikely that the present
decline in organized religion will be ar
rested. Christianity, in fact in its ira
dlt1onal form, will not soon recover its
influence. Meanwhile. a generation is
growing up to maturity which is to II
lntents and purposes without religion.
They do not believe, they do not want
TO believe, and the subject with all its
hair-splitting canons, tenets an. doc
tr1neS, boreS them. This new generation,
however, will have to fill for itself, in
some way, the vacuum 1t has made in
its life and thought"
X
Spanish Railway
May Be Electrified.
G, Madrid.-A commission of
the Empresa Central Electrical Central
Electrical Coz is inspecting the entire
railway system of the Ferrocarriles del
Sur de Espana (Southern Spain Rail-
road, with view to changing the mo-
tive power from steam to electricity. A
commission of the Chamber of Com
merce also is taking part in the inspec-
ton with view to ascertaining how
the freight and passenger tariffs will
be affected in their margin of profit I'M
der the project of electrical operation,
which, after q cost of installation, Is
cheaper than steam.