Imperial Valley press., 1935-12-28
MODERN WITCHCRAFT
DOES NOT RIDE BROOMS

New York police were surprised just
as thousands of newspaper readers were
surprised, to hear of current witch
rackets" in which enterprising persons
coaxed coins from the pockets of Goth
ans gullible residents by selling charms
against witchcraft. 1t is not game to
those who pay their money for charms
and potions to offset the evil influences
of the hags who are supposed to fly
aloft after the lights of Broadway are
out, casting their evil eyes on the NOR
tails below. The victims of witchcraft
practitioners pay hundreds of dollars
annually to the vendors of charms, po-
lice declare.
So great is the belief of many that
that they will not bear witness against
the so-called practitioners because they
fear the vengeance of the witches.
1t is almost unbelievable that such ig-
norance can exist in America, most civ
iliZed of countries. 1t is a slap in the
face for civilization that its vaunted
education has penetrated no deeper than
the hair roots. When hundreds in the
heart of the nations supposedly most
advanced city cling to belief in witch
craft, it is little wonder that many
of the current political and economic
cure-all schemes find followers by the
thousands. A belief in the preachings
of Huey p. Long represented the high
est attainment of mans mentality, in
comparison to the primitive belief in
witehcraft
In view of this, it is a startling asser-
tion that there is such thing as witch
craft. At least, it would have been con-
sidered such in the days when men and
women were drawn and quartered be-
cause they were regarded as witches.
The witchcraft in question is that of
man and science, however. 1t is witch
craft devised by man for mans benefit,
and its results are more amazing than
any ever attained by the ladies who ride
on brooms through the clouds.
Imagine if you can what the people
of three generations ago, even, would
have thought of present day motion pic
lures, airplanes, radio and machines.
In their limited intelligence these things
would have been conclusive demonstra-
tions of magic, to say the least. Man,
queerly enough, usually is far more
ready to believe in the supernatural
than in the natural. What the ordinary
man cannot understand, he is prone to
blame upon some power with greater
powers than were given to man. Yet
study of the accomplishments of his own
race should prove to him the truth OF
the trite old phrase, what man can
dream, man can do"
When the abyss is bridged between
the men who dream and then accomplish
their dreams, and the men who believe
in witches, then perhaps the race of man
will know the answer to the one ques-
tion which has remained totally unan-
swered Only through knowledge far
greater than that yet attained by any
man will the riddle of the hereafter be
solved-not through ignorance which
sees in a shadowy, imaginary realm the
broomsticks of snag-toothed hags and
the white sheeted figures of ghosts. Both
the scientist and the believer in witch
craft are striving for the same thing, but
their methods are poles apart.
The only weapon against witchcraft,
or rather against the belief in witchcraft,
is education. Therein, too, lies the great
er advancement of civilization.
The new dollar bill carries the motto
sc Pluribus Unum" Zone From Many,)
the significance of which will become
Immediately apparent every payday.