A STRANGE ECLIPSE

Northern Advocate, 21 March 1934, Page 4

A STRANGE ECLIPSE

j A strange eclipse, and one I which the “Christian Science I Monitor regards as symbolic, j swept across the Pacific Ocean ! the other day. 11 was strange, Isays the paper, that it started | near the Malay Peninsula on j "Wednesday, crossed on the one ! hundredth and eightiet h meridian I (where (tie lime changes) and | ended near Alaska while it was tstill Tuesday there. It was symjbolic of the strange eclipse ol • reason which darkens Pacific rej lations just now and casts over • modern people a shadow of. tear ias terrible and superstitions as ! any which the moon’s shade ever | threw upon, “ignorant” folk of j olden times-—a fear that tin* | powers of evil arc driving tin; j nations which hordin' the Pacific | into an inevitable conflict. If | reason remains in eclipse these fears may he fulfilled, indeed, can { hardly escape fulfilment. If Tokio jand Moscow—-and Washington—- | continue to think and to talk. ! chiefly in terms of force there j likely will he resort lo force. Put I there are some grounds for hei Moving that reason will, have its jday. An incident in connection with the eclipse brings a gleam of light. One spot in the shadow’s | path, the Losap group of islands in mid-ocean, afforded the best post for the observations of as- ! tronomers. Japan and Russia sent expeditions there to observe the eclipse. The United States Naval Observatory bad intended to send one, but according to news reports it was found that the state of federal finances (possibly due to the new plans for spending • half a billion on warships and planes) did not permit the expense. However, several American scientists joined the Russian and Japanese expeditions. Indeed, the entire enterprise seems to have been carried lent in co-operative fashion. May jwe not hope, will) the Moni- | tor, that soon the eclipse of reason will pass from the Pacific, land that Japan, Russia and the i United ‘Slates, 1 hough not yet l ready, to abandon all ..-reliance on | force, will find ways to apply j reason, good will and co-opcr- | ation to the search for a solution of their common problems even as their citizens sought the trillh about the great shadow of the sun’s eclipse?