The agitation for the abolition of hereditary titles in England caused a crisis in the political and social world of Great Britain. The degeneracy of hereditary nobles, their utter incapacity adequately to fill the positions left by their illustrious ancestors, to the detriment and retrogression of the British government, was the main cause of bringing about this bloodless internecine revolution. Despite the most strenuous opposition by the friends of the nobles, a new law was added to the revised Magna Charta, by an overwhelming public demand. With few exceptions, it nullified the existing titles, and elevated to peerage only worthy citizens for life, on condition of the good behavior of the incumbent. This excellent law brought fresh and saving blood into the political and civic life of England. The movement precipitated the abandonment of the House of Lords and created in its stead a body called Senatorium, whose members were elected by the tax-paying citizens. 1935 Blowing the Earth Into Fragments The most remarkable sensation of this year was that of a German scientist and statistician who, after a thorough investigation and mathematical calculation, announced his conclusions, that it was in the range of collective human power, that is, by the combined aid of labor, time, money and high explosives, to rend the earth in twain, or into fragments, and thus create new planets in space, producing new climatic conditions, fauna and life, adaptable to their new positions in the solar system. 1937 An American Penal Colony The census of this year revealed an unprecedented number of evil-doers, causing great anxiety to the Government. There were recorded ninety-two thousand criminals in prisons and seventy-six thousand paupers in the poor houses. This army of public charges cost the State authorities more than thirty million dollars for their maintenance. At last by the stress of popular agitation the government adopted a policy of penal colonization. Selecting a desirable island in the Philippines, the Federal authorities succeeded in transporting to the island, within three years, and with half the cost of their maintenance at home, one hundred thousand of these unfortunate malefactors. Here, they were given every facility and aid, for acquiring and building of homes, farms and factories, and within ten years, under a wise military administration more than half of that number were reclaimed, forming a prosperous and loyal community in the Eastern Hemisphere. 1938 The Great Telescope