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THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLAST4, GA., 5 JfOBTH FORSYTH ST.' >
Entered at the Atlanta Postottice as Mail Matter of
* the Second Class. _
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The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tues
day and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes
for early‘delivery.
It contains news from all over the world, brought
by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff
of distinguished contributors, with strong depart
ments of special value to the home and the farm.
Agents wanted at every postoflice. Liberal com
mission allowed Outfit free. Write K R- BRAD
LEY. Circulation Manager.
The only traveling representatives we have are
B. F. Bolton. C. C. Coyle. Charles H. Woodliff. J- M
Patten. W. H. Reinhardt. M. H- Bevil and John Mac
Jennings. We will be responsible only for money
paid to the above named traveling representatives.
V-
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Address ail and notice* for this Department to THE
gEMI-WKEKLY JOURNAL. Atlanta. Ga.
Georgia's Patriotic Duty
To the New Liberty Loan.
The offering of the second Liberty loan affords
the rank and file of the American people an espe
cially inviting opportunity to show their patriot
ism and good sense. - The bonds to be sold for this
loan, like those of the one preceding, will be in
denominations as low as fifty dollars and will be
purchasable on 'easy-payment plans. They will
bear four per cent interest, an appreciably higher
rate than that.of the first bonds, and will be easily
negotiable. For safety, few if any forms of in
vestment are comparable to them; they are backed
by all the power, all the resources, all the integ
rity of the entire United States. Who owns a Lib
erty bond, owns something far more valuable than
its equivalent in gold; he owns an invincible se
curity that will grow in worth continually with
the passing years, and attest both the wisdom and
loyalty of its owner.
It is an honor to own a Liberty bond; more
than that, it is a duty. By subscribing to this
loan of three billion dollars or more the citizen
will take a definite, personal part in winning bis
'country’s war for safety and freedom and right.
He will contribute just so much to the everlasting
protection of American shores against brutal Prus
sianism. He will be supporting the gallant youths
who by hundreds of thousands have joined the
colors, offering their lives that their nation’s honor
may be kept unsullied and its firesides kept secure.
When those brave boys are giving their all. who
that has a spark of patriotism or pride will fail to
do his utmost to sustain and cheer them in the
fight?
It is largely for their sustenance that this Lib
erty loan is to be raised. Its proceeds will keep
up the flow of supplies needed for onr great armies
now tn the making and for the large American
contingents already in France. For this alone,
millions upon millions of dollars are required; and
equipment and provisions are but the first steps
in the herculean task of putting and keeping our
forces in the fight. Without these financial sin
ews, our armies can do nothing; they cannot even
subsist. And without a loyal response from the
rank and file of Americans, those all-important
sinews cannot be secured. In a very vital sense,
therefore, the winning of the war depends on the
man back home whose immediate and paramount
duty is to buy Liberty bonds.
Not only the winning of the war but the short
ening of it depends largely on the success of this
Liberty loan. The mos't inspiring thing the Amer
ican public now can do for its cause and the most
depressing thing it can do for the Kaiser’s cause
is to oversubscribe the three billion dollar loan.
Suppose they make it Jive billions within the course
of the next few weeks. What an answer from the
plain people of the United States to the Hohen
zollern tyrant and his pack of war lords who are
bent upon overrunning the world! What a notice
to the German masses that we will have no deal
ings with their faithless, war-breeding, murderous
despots! The more speedily' and more powerfully
we manifest our will to win. the sooner will the
' war be over. And at this juncture there is no
way by which the American people can manifest
their determined loyalty so plainly or so effectively
.as by supporting the Liberty loan.
• * The campaign for the sale of these bonds be
gins tomorrow. October the first, on the threshold
of the most prosperous autumn our country, par
ticularly the agricultural sections, have known.
—Here in the South and in Georgia, where the fruit
ful months have brimmed our store and where the
fires of patriotism have always burned so bright
and true, let us see to it that our duty is fully
I done and our traditions worthily upheld.
Georgia's Wheat Planting.
In common with many other Georgia newspa
pers that are in close touch with the rural dis
tricts the Tifton Gazette is making a sustained and
praiseworthy appeal for the planting of a liberal
acreage of winter wheat. The Government’s vir
tual guarantee of a minimum price of two dollars
and twenty cents a bushej for next year’s wheat
makes it certain, as the Gazette points out. that
flour will be "about equivalent to twenty-five-cent
cotton." Farmers can ill afford to buy flour at that
figure when they can raise all their own needs re
quire. with a goodly surplus to sell. Whatever may
l>e the fortunes of cotton, a profitable market for
food crops is assured. The world’s reserves of
grain and meat and kindred staples are unprece
dentedly low.- and are likely to continue so long
after the war is over. The Southern farmer who
produces an abundance of those necessaries will
have the double advantage of escaping high prices
and falling in with handsome profits.
Just now there Is the (/articular incentive of
patriotism to the production of food supplies, par
ticularly wheat. Without a great increase in our
present store of that basic commodity, it will be im
possible to continue provisioning our allies as we
should and at the same time take care of our own
armies. This year’s harvest. It is true, is cheer
ingly bountiful, but It will not of itself suffice to
fill out "the loop’d and windowed raggedn.ess" of
last year's lean output. The South can do g great
deal to solve this vital problem by raising its own
stores of-wheat as well as corn, along with other
food staples; and by that policy it will also be pro
moting its material prosperity.
What War appropriations
When congress s|>eaks In millions and billions
dedicated to war purposes the layman is pretty apt
to figure only on the cost of raising and equipping
armies, transporting them and the cost of the moun
tains of ammunition necessary for the conduct of
real hostilities. But there is vastly more than this
principally because it would be poor policy to burden
the French with a load we are so well able to
carry ourselves. Here are some of the things we
will do with the huge appropriations other than the
items enumerated:
At the port of entry designated for America s
use we will build piers and big warehouses to ac
commodate the ships and supplies needed for the
army. From this port a network of railroads will
be constructed for the transportation of men and
supplies to the front, and to this transportation
system will be added our own automobile roads.
At various points along the rail and macadam
highways supply depots will be erected, and like
wise needed base hospitals. Big machine shops
will be needed for the repair of engines, autos,
guns, armored cars and aeroplanes. All of this
means that for the duration of the w-ar only great
American industrial cities will spring up all over
France, and the bigger the part we play in the
war the more comprehensive these undertakings.
Much of the money appropriated so far and yet
to be set aside for war purposes will go into the
building of a huge merchant marine fleet. While
every dollar for war purposes is an investment in
the name of Democracy, the millions put into ships
are of the visible type and ultimately means com
mercial supremacy on the high seas for the United
States. Outside of the investments in ships a large
percentage of the appropriations so far made has
gone to the Entente Powers in the form of loans,
all of which will be returned with interest in the
running of time. Even Democracy is an expensive
institution, but it is incomparably cheaper than
Kaiserism.
The Southeastern Fair.
The purposes for which the Southeastern Fair
was established are of greater significance this
year than ever before, not only to the material
interests of our own section but also to the patri
otic interests of the entire nation. War conditions
and war responsibilities have emphasized as noth
ing else could the need of efficiency in food pro
duction. The Government recognized at the outset
that plowshares would play as decisive a part in
winning the war as would swords, and accordingly
it has encouraged by every means at its command
all those agencies that are working for a more
efficient and more fruitful agriculture. And espe
cially has it encouraged such enterprises as the
Southeastern Fair.
On the time-trleii principle that one example
is worth ten precepts, the wonderful weatlh of ex
hibits to be presented in this exposition, October
18-20. will do more for the cause of diversified
farming and Increased food production than any
conceivable amount of literature or lecturing. In
virtually every department of the Fair, the exhibits
will be from fifty to a hundred per cent more nu
merous this year than last. This is ascribable
partly to the greatly increased housing facilities
which the new buildings at Lakewood have pro
vided, and partly to the splendid reputation which
the Fair has won throughout the Southeast. There
is every indication, moreover, that the attendance
from the State and section at large will excel even
the magnificent record of 1918.
By no means will the Fair be limited to agri
cultural and livestock displays, though they quite
naturally will be its heart. The industrial exhibits,
including the automobile show, would make a nota
ble exposition themselves. Especial efforts,
too, have been made to secure the best amusement
features obtainable in the United States, so that
for jollity as well as for instruction the 1917 South
eastern Fair will set a new pattern and a new
pace.
The Farmer and His Automobile.
There is a great deal more than merely indus
trial significance in the fact that forty per cent of
the automobiles sold this year have been bought
by farmers: there is an omen of a happier order
of living for the rural districts; there is a forecast
that the tide of American population which has
been flowing unfortunately to crowded cities
ebb back to the soil.
Simply as evidence of prosperity the farmers’
extensive buying of automobiles is very interest
ing. In lowa there is an average of one car to
every nine persons: in Nebraska, one to every ten;
in Kansas, one to every thirteen. Need more be
said of the profits of food-growing. The rural
South as well as the grain-gathering West is be
coming motorized at an astonishing rate. Indeed,
every agricultural region is mixing more and
more gasoline with its hay. This betokens ex
traordinarily good times for farming interests,
which after all are the base of our entire structure
of prosperity. But the chief import of the fact
that nearly half the automobiles sold this year
were bought by farmers is on the social rather
than the business side.
"The trouble with the farm,” said a shrewd
philosopher, "is three miles an hour.” Visiting
a neighbor six miles away is rather a laborious
matter when the quickest means of going is a
horse-drawn vehicle. But with an automobile
handy, the distance dwindles to comparatively a
step or two: it is easy for the family to get to
church, easy for the children to get to school, easy
for the wives to go visiting, easy for the boys to go
courting. The isolation of the farm melts away
when its traveling pace becomes twenty miles an
hour instead of* three. ,
Isolation, with its consequent loneliness and
lack of amusement, was always the aspect of farm
life most responsible for the cityward drift. The
automobile is but one among many factors making
for freer communication and broader sociability in
countrj' districts; the ' telephone, the rural mail
delivery, the extension of railroads, the develop
ment of interurban trolley lines and the wide
spread improvement of highways, all work to that
happy end. But as a distance-destroyer and an
inveiltive to stirring about, the automobile rein
forces and excels them all. When one reflects that
the jeer capita production of foodstuffs in the United
States has steadily declined in recent decades and
that the cost of living ha# become correspondingly
burdensome, the importance of attracting, more
people to agriculture is keenly evident. But they
must be ATTRACTED there: they cannot be argued
there. Hence.the weighty and far-reaching impor
tance of every movement, every contrivance and
every idea that adds to the interest and joy of
country life. , ’
THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1917.
Prc-German Peace Parrots.
The pro-German peace parrots in this country
have been joyfully garrulous of late over the
Kaiser's reply to the Vatican, and particularly
over his rumored willingness to restore the lands
which his vandals have invaded and despoiled.
"There!”, chattered the yellow pollies of Prussian
ism, "Germany accepts President Wilson’s terms,
and stands ready to give up Belgium along with
ruthless ambition.” But now comes Chancellor
Michaelis, who is no more nor less than the
Kaiser's secretary, repudiating the suggestion of
Germany’s willingness to evacuate the conquered
territories. So falls another piece of the camou
flage with which the Hohenzollorn's Americah
friends have been trying to mask his treachery,
xnd so will the entire fabfllc of their specious
propaganda crumble under the test of events.
German autocracy is no more Inclined to fair
dealing and righteous peace now than it was when
it precipitated its long-planned war. It is no more
minded to accept President Wilson's terms today
than when it broke its solemn pledges to our Gov
ernment and, by its continual murders of innocent
Americans, forced the United States to arms. Now
that it sees the vast shadow of America's mustering
strength and hears the rumble of its approaching
doom, German autocracy is eager indeed for a
truce—an inconclusive settlement that will leave
it powerful and free to resume its black adventure.
But that is the only object of its sundry "peace”
proposals—that, together with an effort to
strengthen the morale of the German people by
making it appear that the Allies will hear to no
honorable terms whatsoever.
The rumor of Germany’s willingness to give up
Belgium started where all such rumors start, in
Berlin. It was one of the gas bags the Kaiser is
continually sending up to try the winds of world
sentiment. Having served its purpose, this inspired
rumor is now officially denied. So of all the peace
suggestions that creep fortjh from Berlin and are
nursed so sedulously in pro-German bosoms. Each
is mere "feeler,” but each hides a serpent-sting of
perfidy. What boots it that the Kaiser professes
belief in arbitrating international disputes and in
reducing armaments? Admirable as they are in
principle, those world reforms will not be practi
cally discussable while German autocracy stands.
For there could be no reasonable hope of German
autocracy’s abiding by any pledges or treaties it
might make. President Wilson spoke emphatically
on\this point in his reply to the Pope’s peace note:
"We cannot take the word of the present
rulers of Germany as a guarantee of anything
that is to endure, unless explicitly supported
by such conclusive evidence of the will and
purpose of the German people themeelves as
the other peoples of the world would be justir
fled In accepting. Without such guarantees
treaties of settlement, agreement for disarm
ament, covenants to set up arbitration in the
place of force, territorial readjustments, re
constitutions of small nations, if made with
the German Government, no man, no nation
could now depend on.” •
That is to say, there can be no peace with
Kaiserism. There could be a patched-up armistice,
it is true, a feverish interim of preparation for an
other and more terrible war. But not until the
criminal regime that now grips the German nation
is overthrown, can there, be a peace that will en
dure, or a settlement worthy of the heroic hosts
who have poured out their tlood for freedom.
America entered this war with the well-thought-out
and resolute purpose of making the world safe for
democracy and safe for civilization. Never until
that end is achieved and it is certain that Ameri
can firesides are forever secure against brutal Prus
sianlsm, can we afford in wisdom or justice or
honor to lay down our arms.
if the war did nothing else it has engendered
a new respect for the government.
-
A Chew for Pacifists.
if anyone fancies that peace worthy the name is
possible with the red-handed, unrepentant Hohen
zollern autocracy, he will do well to chew and
digest these words from a recent speech by former
President Taft:
"He who proposes’ peace now either does
not see the stake for which the Allies are fight
ing or wishes the German autocracy still to
control the destinies of all of us as to peace, or
war. Those who favor permanent world peace
must oppose with might and main the proposals
for peace at this juncture in the war. whether
made in Socialistic councils, in pro-German
conferences, or by Pope Benedict.”
That is the heart of the whole issue. It is quite
natural that individuals or newspapers who for any
reason are in sympathy with the Kaiser s cause and
wish "the German autocracy still to control the
destinies of all of us,” should clamor for>a parley
just when America is getting in position to make her
vast resources count decisively in the war. It is quite
natural, too, that persons who have not grasped
the breadth and nobility '6f the principles for which
the allied democracies are fighting should fail to see
why the Kaiser’s tricky overtures should not be
accepted. But it is inconceivable that any thought
ful American who loves his country and under
stands its ideals should stand for a compromise of
principle that would amount to a base and foolish
surrender. It is inconceivable that any American
who wants a peace that will be righteous and en
during should counsel the making of a treacherous
truce with an irresponsible autocracy whose whole
course has been and whose whole purpose ever will
be. ruthless war. ,
Save f'ome Sugar for France.
The sugar allowance in France has been cut an
ounce a day, which is less than a fourth of what
the average American consumes. Even that scant
allowance cannot be maintained unless larger ex
ports of sugar from the United States are forth
coming. Mr. Hoover’s appeal to the public to make
this possible by eating a bit less sugar for a season
should meet with hearty and nation-wide response.
A little more economy in the kitchen along with a
little self-denial in the way of sweets will provide
the one hundred thousand tons of sugar impera
tively needed to keep France in its present meager
allowance. The New York World truly remarks in
this connection that it ik doubtless easier to give
money and knit garments than to deny ourselves
the pleasures of the palate) "but if there is sin
cerity in our professions of sympathy for our op
pressed and heroic allies.'there should be no diffi
culty in saving enough frdm our lavish allowance
to eke out their scanty?simply, '*
THE FOUR-MINUTE MEN' —By Frederic J. Haskin. .
WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 4. —A new war
organization, known as the Four-Minute
Speakers has recently been formed under
the auspices of the government for the purpose of
arousing patriotism throughout the country.
The Four-Minute AJen, like the Minute Men of
’76, are patriots organized to meet an emergency,
but they are disciples of Patrick Henry rather than
Ethan Allen. Their task is to arouse interest in
the war by making speeches about it—speeches
strictly limited, confined and restricted to four
minutes.
Maybe you consider that a simple task? Well,
it seems that it isn't. The organization has had
the greatest difficulty in procuring men who could
make a speech in four minutes. Many men who
are splendid speakers, if they have plenty of time
in which to tell stories and get up steam, cannot
make good on a four-minute speech at all. And
yet the four-ininuate feature is absolutely essential
to the success of the organization.
For the four-minute men speak in moving pic
ture theaters. At the end of the big feature, an
American flag is thrown on the screen to attract
the attention of the audience. Immediately fol
lows a large-lettered announcement that Mr. So
and-So "will speak for four minutes on a subject of
national importance. He speaks under the author
ity of the committee on public information, Wash
ington, D. C.” This saves time in introductions,
which the organization dislikes for the reason that
the introducer is always tempted to make a speech
himself that is apt to string itself out and tire the
audience. And the audience must not be tired.
That is the basic principles of the four-minute
idea.
So strict are the four-minute men regarding this
principle that a visiting committee, appointed by
the organization, visits the moving picture thea
ters and times the speakers. If a man allows his
speech to run one second over four minutes he is
severely called down by the visiting committee.
And, if on a second occasion, he repeats the of
fense, he Is asked for his resignation. The visit
ing committee Is not lenient in this matter. It is
made up o’s deposed speakers.
As a further check upon the time in which a
Four-Minute Man speaks the organization has en
listed the aid of the moving picture theater man
agers, too. If at the end of four minutes a man
goes on speaking they, are requested to stop him
either by linging a bell, blowing a horn or, as one
member said, shocting him if necessary.
The four-minute idea is the most up-to-date
adaptation -of that ancient principle to the effect
that people will listen to anything just so long as
you don’t tire Diem. Men in public life have long
practiced self-denial in the matter of words in
order to "put over” their propaganda more effec
tively. Politicians —that is. successful politicians
—always make short speeches; ministers are con
tinually diminishing the size of-their sermons, and
some lawyers have recognized the value of few
words. Tn confining their speeches to that four
minute period between the change of films in the
moving picture shows, the four-minute men have
not only succeeded in holding the complete atten
tion of their audiences —they have actually made
those audiences applaud for encores.
This, of course, means that the four-minute men
are really most excellent speakers. They come
from all walks of life. The organization will ac
cept anybody from a policeman to a cabinet officer
just as long as he can make a good speech. Mr.
McAdoo and Mr. Lane are both four-minute men,
although in view of their present heavy duties they
will doubtless be infrequent speakers. Tn Wash
ington the chairman of the local committee of
four-minute men Is Ira N. Bennett, a lawyer, and
the other forty or more who make up the
rest of the committee are mechanics and profes
sional men, government clerks and enlisted meh.
the two cabinet officers already mentioned, the
assistant secretary of the treasury, Byron S. New-
REFORMS OF CRIMINALS
—a—-
By H. Addington Bruce
IN a recent number of the Boston Medical and
Surgical Journal Dr. V. V. Anderson issues
a report bearing illuminatingly on the im
portant problem of reforming criminals.
Dr. Anderson, who is connected with the Bos
ton municipal court as director of*medical service,
recognizes the necessity of dealing with criminals
not as a class, but as individuals. He recognizes
further that many criminals are mentally disor
dered, and that in all such cases special treatment
is needed if the individual problems they present
are to be satisfactorily and justly solved.
In the present report he insists more particu
larly on the importance of carefully discriminating
between criminals who are feeble-minded and
those of abnormal rather than subnormal mental
ity. To aid court authorities in discriminating
between the two types he has made a comparative
study of a hundred feeble-minded criminals and a
hundred psychopathic ones.
Here, briefly, are his findings:
A majority of the feeble-minded—6B per cent
—never got beyond the fifth grade in school,
while 82 per cent of the psychopaths got beyond
that grade.
Sixty per cent of the psychopaths graduated
from grammar school, 22 per cent went to high
school. 9 per cent graduated from high school, and
3 per cent went to college.
Again, studying their later records, Dr. An
derson found that jeven times as many psycho
paths as feeble-minded were steadily employed.
He comments:
"The feeble-minded as a class, are in the ma
jority of these cases industrially inefficient, and
are not capable of 'holding down’ positions for
any length of time.
"But the psychopaths as a class are in the
majority of these cases fairly efficient industrially;
capable of holding positions for much longer pe
riods; and, when they lose such, do so more be
cause of their temperamental pecularities. their
emotional instability, etc., than any real lack of
industrial efficiency.”
Continuing. Dr. Anderson notes that the hun
dred feeble-minded criminals studied by him were
arrested 1,825 times, or an average of 18.25 ar
rests for each. The hundred psychopaths were
: r times, or an average of 3.69 ar-
rests for each pyschopathic criminal.
In the light of these findings it becomes evi
dent that if a wrongdoer’s mentality is under sus
picion. and if his life history shows he was an
extreme dullard in boyhood, was unemployable in
manhood, and has been a repeated offender, the
chances are that he is of defective rather than
aberrant mentality.
In which case., according to Dr. Anderson, it
is of little use to put him on probation. Os the
feeble-minded criminals studied by the Massachu
setts specialist, "only twenty-five could be consid
ered satisfactory probation cases."
But with the psyehopathetic type the situation
is reversed. Says Dr. Anderson:
"Twenty-one per cent of the probation periods
of the feeble-minded were successful, while more
th: n twice that number <49 per cent l of the pro
bation periods of the psychopaths were successful.
"The chances are better than two to one in
favor of the psychopaths, and this without any
special effort directed toward training them to
conn:erect the difficulties of personality most re
sponsible for their failure.
"It is quite likely that more cjin be done for
through probation than through
any other agency, provided their treatment be
•guided by a knowledge of their temperamental
pecnl’nr’Me ~. their personality maladjustments, so
that their environment can be suitably influenced
or chosen for them, and. they themselves trained
to inhibit their impulses."
In this report, clearly. th°re Is food for thought
!>y those who r.s lawyers, judges, penal officials, or
social workers come much into contact with of
fenders against society.
(Copyright, 1917, by the Assocated Newspapers.)
ton. and the treasurer of the United States. John
Burke. «
The speeches of the four-minute men are con
fined exclusively to the war. Each moving picture
theater on the list gets two speakers a week. The
first-night the subject is the “Need of Food Con
servation;” the second night it is "Why We Are
Fighting.” and the next week another speaker gives
a four-minute talk on "What our enemy really is
the German government rather than the German
people.” In this way all the facts about the wax
are presented to the moving picture audiences by
different speakers who keep the interest of the peo
ple by ceasing to talk just as they are about tu
lose it. *
The subjects of the speeches are given out each
week by the national headquarters at Washington,
which mails the data, as well as a sample speech,
to every four-minute man throughout the country.
He can either use the sample speech or Invent one
of his own from the information given, with the
assistance of the outline mapped out for him.
Here is the outline of the speech entitled; "What
Our Enemy Really Is:”
1. We must understand that the German sys
tem of government is the opposite of democracy.
2. We must realize that a German victory would
mean the downfall of democracy throughout the
world.
3. We must unmask pro-German arguments that
pretend to be American sentiment and which de
ceive many well-intentioned Americans.
5. We must develop American sentiment In
harmony with America’s purposes.
From this outline the four-minute man makes
his speech, which is usually from five hundred to
seven hundred words long. It usually starts some
thingjike this: "Ladles and Gentlemen: The time
has come when the American people should know
in this war who their real enemy is and what we
are up against in a struggle which will determine
the whole future of this country. By the Courtesy
of the management of this theater I am going to
talk with you a few moments on that subject.”
The last sentence of this paragraph, by the way,
needs a few words of explanation. The moving
picture theaters are co-operating with the four
minute men in every way possible. They offer their
theaters and their audiences to the four-minute
men free of charge, simply to show that they are
patriotic citizens anxious to further the cause of.
the war as far as they are able. Very few movie’
men have refused the courtesy, although perhaps
those few are to be excused on the grounds th«t
they have suffered from the effects of former gen
erosity.
When the Liberty loan was being floated, mov
ing picture men offered their theaters to govern
ment campaigners who had not been imbued with
the four-minute idea. They made long speeches
to the people in their zeal for inspiring subscrip
tions. and as a result the people yawned, fidgeted
and finally made their escape, never to return. It
was the Red Cross campaigners who first discovered
the efficacy of being brief. One of them had heard
the story concerning the late Samuel Clemens,*who
upon going to church was so pleased with the min
ister's sermon that he put a five dollar bill in the
collection plate. The sermon went on, and Mr.
Clemens began to regret'his hasty act. It was still
going on when the collection plates passed him the
second time, at which Mr. Clemens is said to
reached out and taken his five dollar bill back.
At any rate, the Red Cross campaigners found
that they could inspire more enthusiasm in four
minutes than they could in twenty-four and from
that time on the four-minute speech was here to
stay. The four-minute men already have been very
successssful, according to all reports. They hare
aroused interest where* formerly there was indiffer
ence —and why not? Advertising will accomplish
wonders, and the four-minute men are the biggest
verbal advertising campaign that has ever been
launched in America.
W 4 E-PRESENT MR. HOOVER
/ By Dr. Frank Crane
This is not the story of a king’s son who had <
kingdom and an army handed him, and rode to
fame, and built a pyramid and a mausoleum, and
got himself a date line in the histories.
It is not the story of a man with a pull, nor of a
lucky man. nor of a superman, nor of a genius, nor
of anybody like Alexander, nor Caesar, nor Napo
leon, nor Rothschild, nor Paderewski, nor Charlie
Chaplin.
It is the story of a plain, everyday, Unitecfr Stater
boy who made good.
He didn’t da anything wonderful, he didn't
astound the world by his brilliant talents, he’ didn’t
ravage foreign countries with an army nor bleed his
own country to make himself a billionaire.
All he did was to do what he was supposed to
do. He accomplished. He produced results, not
excuses.
He is doing his bit now. without fuss and feath
ers. just as Haig, or Petain, or Pershing, or Wilson,
or thousands of others of the neblemen of democ
racy are doing their bit.
His name is Herbert C. Hoover.
From a biography of him in “Curb News” I note
these points:
He was born forty-three years ago at West
Branch. lowa. He was brought up on a farm.
He wouldn’t go to a denominational college, as
his family wished, but chose Leland Stanford Uni
versity, where he paid his own way by running a
laundry. \
At twenty-one he graduated, was offered a
scholarship, but decided to go to work as a mining
engineer. He spent a year in western mines as a
common miner with a lamp in his hat and a pick
in
At twenty-two he was offered a job as fourth
assistant engineer in Australian mines. While there
he discovered an old mine whose dump heap, under
modern processes, he thought could be made to pay.
He interested some capitalists who were willing to
take a chance, got the necessary machinery, and
made a lot of money.
At twenty-five he was so favorably known In
mining circles that,he was employed by the Chinese
Imperial Burau of Mines to make extensive explora
tions in China.
At twenty-six he was made mining expert for
the North China government. Then the Boxer re
bellion broke out. He managed to escape, with his
wife, to Tien-Tsin. For six weeks they, with half a
dozen other Americans, lived beneath a barricade
of rice bags and sugar barrels.
At twenty-eight he joined a company of mine
operators in London, and his mining interests ex
tended to many parts of the "world.
At thirty-four his business had expanded, his
fortunodnereased. and his reputation spread, until
he was actively concerned as a world-worker, hav
ing aflairs in Burmah. Australia, Mexico, China,
and California.
At fQrty he was asked to join a committee to
aid war-stranded Americans to get back home.
This work speedily grew until he was helping and
feeding myriads tn Eurone.
And at forty-three, backed by the president,
congress, and people of the United States, he is oc
cupying one of the most important posts of the
world.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is nobody's favorite,
nobody's nephew, no pet of a party nor instrument
of capital, nor silver-tongued politician, but just a
plain lowa farmer boy. who has the habit of making
good, and who today is in charge of the feeding of
America and of practically-the entire world.
Here's the answer. Mr. Kipling, to your adver
tisement:
"Creation's cry goes up
From age to cheated age.
GiVe us the men who do the work
For which they get the wage!”
We present Mr. Hoover.
(Copyright, 1917, by Frank CraneJ
