Evening star., 1937-08-29


other jor sun-Spot maxi
u mum.
Consequently this is a heydey for
astrologers, for they now can juggle
to the hearts content with the one
bit Of astrology which is not demon
strably pure moonshine.
The sun is the earth's star. OBJ
viously it has been recognized since
the earliest grapplings o. the human
mind with the mysteries Of the uni
verse. Primitive peoples the earth
over worshiped it. Other peoples
not 20 prinitive-stll worship it.
Perhaps all Of us worship it. as it is
disguised in various symbols.
Part Of the Sun.
We are in sense part Of it., The
materials which make up our own
bodies, the food We eat, the earth
upon which We walk, the minds with
which We think, the hearts with which
We love were not so long ago-as
celestial time is reckoned-in the sun.
A couple of billion years ago some
thing happened. perhaps a star COL
lision. Great chunks were knocked
loose from the sun. They are the nine
planets of the solar system One of
them is us, the streptococcus, the
Himalaya Mountains and the moon
perhaps Hamlet and the Moonlight
Sonata" also. In other words, it is
the earth and all that dwell upon it.
These chunks didn't get away from
the sun entirely. The star holds them
to it with cords of gravity and of
light. They live and breathe as it
lives and breathes. To dweller
within the system it seems as if the
planets We're separated from each
other and from the sun by enormous
chasnls of empty space. One who
looked upon them from the nearest
outside celestial body-it is the star
Beta Centauri in the Southern sky,
and light moving at 10000 miles a
second requires about five years to
pass between it and us-would see
only single star. Planets and sun
would be one body.
So, it might be maintained. what
happens to the sun and in the sun
happens to all of us and in all
OF U.s.
Light the Secret OF Life.
Light is the master stars rod of
government. All light in the solar sys-
Item is delicately adjusted to it. II
sunlight were trifle different in its
composition, terrestrial life would not
exist-certainly in nothing like its
present form.
Now the question arises Is the sun
lax mistress. oblivious to details and
concerned only with major policies
in her far-f1ung domain? Does she
allow liberty of conscience and action
within the scope Of very generalized
code OF celestial law? Does she dele
gate some of her duties to presidents
and kings and congresses and philoso-
pliers? Or are all these blind puppets
in her hands? Does she NEEDLE, how
ever bunglesomely, with everything?
There may be clue to the answers
IN a curious, recurrent phenomenon
which takes place on the star, which
can be observed from the earth and
whose various phases might possibly
be correlated with terrestrial changes.
This is the phenomenon Of sunspots-
black blotches that appear on the face
Of the sun.
Cause Uncertain.
They are titanic storms in the at
mosphere OF the star, hurricanes that
sweep around 1t. Nobody knows what
causes them, although many have
epeculated. II the cause could be as
certalned, many questions might be
answered. The one thing positively
known about them is that their num-
bers wax and wane in cycles Approx
imately once every II years they de-
cline from maximum to minimum and
. then rise to maximum again.
lhls Is a very much simplified de-
ecrlptlon OF the phenomenon. It is
actually as complicated, perhaps more
30, than the rising and falling of the
tide on a seashore. Every now and
then two or three waves overtake out
each and come in together, washing
far up on the beach. So with these
sun storms. At some maximum periods
there are far more of them than at
other maximum periods, and at some
mlnima less Of them than at other
3ninima
Various terrestrial effects are attrib-
uted to them directly or as accompany-
Ing them and due to the deep-lvine
unrest in the body of the sun which
causes the storms themselves. Prob
aoly the pest-esta blished effect is that
on the weather. In the last few wears
tnere has accumulated an enormous
amount OF data to establish the nv
pothesls that certain terrestrial weather
cycles OF temperature and precipita-
tlon roughly parallel the sunspot cycle
ana various repetitions of it. The
parallel is not exact. Nobody cIain,s
that the sunspots themselves affect
- earthly climate or that earthly cN-
mate affects the sunspots, but both
may be profoundly affected by COM
mon' and still unknown. cause.
May Inspire Wars.
Now, II the assumption can he ac.
cepted that certain regularly recur-
rent sunspot maxima are roughly
paraueled by certain weather phe-
nolnena, GOOD many other things
can be predicted. Crops, for example,
VIII be profoundly affected. This. in
turn, will affect industry, the stock
market, the financial structure in gen.
eral. This will affect the political
structure. And this may affect the
Whole temper Of the world. the whole
trend of humanity thinking. Eco
nomics are undoubtedly one of the
underlying causes of revolutions and
~ars-some say the only underlying
cause
Just now, the solar system seems
to be headed hell-bent toward what
may be extraordinary maximum
Hardly a month passes that some
astronomical observatory does not re-
port some unusual sun-spot phenome-
non. Late in July. for example, the
Carnegie Institution of WASHINGTON
reported that the largest rro,,n of