Newspaper Page Text
One can’t hold all his convic
tions. We must give 'to get.
Pebbles and persons are
rounded out by rubbing against
others.
“Guinea” Men
By HERBERT KAUFMAN '
You're a ten per cent. success—the tax returns prove it; the number of tickets in the time clock say
it; “Who’s Who’’ and the overall output are further witnesses. |
Weekly wages and annual profits of the average American proclaim that he mistakes first base for
the home plate and consequently never scores.
You accept the nearest job that offers and squeeze into it regardless of fit. You. woul.dn:t think of
choosing shoes without a try-on. Your feet have more sense than your head—they insist upon a
proper last—pinched toes rebel—won’t stay where they can’t have free play. ‘
Why do you cripple your career by persisting in an unyielding environment? Restricted spaces deny
growth; a pot-bound plant eventually stunts. :
Root in a cranny and it will strangle you. Determined trees sprouting in rock occasionally split even
granite and win free, but the odds are cruelly in favor of the stone.
If you were doomed to finish where you start, society would not resent your showing.
A Chinaman might, with justice, point to the congestion and restrictions of his birthplace and make a
sound excuse for penury; a Hindu could show that the barriers of caste are insurgnounta{:le; a peon of
oppressed, benighted Mexico can give several valid reasons for his despicable lot—but if Nafure l?ft
no parts out of his machine, a mature American citizen of mean estate is author of his own discredit.
Whoever remains on a sterile spot, continues at a cheap occupation or settles in a position without
prospects, hasn’t the ambition to progress. 2 .
Laziness isn’t merely inaction—unexercised intelligence is a loafer too. The journeyman without an
idea beyond his stipulated tasks deliberately shirks advancement. A dealer operating in the same lit
tle shop year after year, isn’t wishing for a bigger store.
You're barsain-hunters—searching for cheap opportunities—exertion-misers—spending no more im
agination and talent than is necessary to buy bes and board. |
They tell the tale in London of a Yankee manufacturer who found that his English representative
was payia, canvassers five-dollar salaries. Figuring that they’d try six times harder, he gave them five
a day. Whereupon the Cockneys worked one day. They had accustomed themselves to five dollar
outlooks and needs—they were congenital “guinea” men. They didn’t want to do better; the better
ment wasn’t worth the extra trouble.
You're a “guinea’’ man too—you and the most of us.
There are too many such “coasters” in these United States—too many folk who prefer a long, smooth
route to a strenuous short-cut—too many sluggards aiming to travel their roads without the bother of
pedaling—too many hill dodgers for the goodg of the Republic. ;
You can meet the Nation’s increased expenses in a jiffy, if You will. Ninety per cent.of ninety per
cent. co'f you is asleep. If only the thunder of enemy guns could rouse that vast treasury of drowsing
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OU snob, how dare you
patronize .
Trader and créftsman
and the wise?
Tinkers and thinkers and mer
chants pay
- Toll to the nation day by day.
- Earning the rights they exer
cise,
’ Sqlf ~wrought the ladders on
‘ which thex rise.
l Climbers you dub them and
! climbers they are:
, Besting the handicap, vaulting
the bar,
And while they keep climbing
our hopes shall ride, far.
Such made the Flag for us, star
% upon star.
} Who are your ancestors, what is
your tree?
' Vhence came the wealths you
l are spending so free? ~
= Jow many carpenters, shop
keepers, bagmen,
A Rum seliers, cobblers, clerks,
laborers, ragmen,
Toiled for you, moiled for you,
slaved for the pittance
Which started the fortune that
bought your admittance?
Ask Your Congressman to Introduce This Bill
T isn’t a bit premature to decide the lot of war orphans. What plans are
being made for their housing and rearing? What shall be the Gov
ernment’s policy toward the heaviest legatees of disaster? Pensions
can’t balance the debt. “Institutions,” as we now know them, will ill
repay the sad deprivations they are fated to endure. Society is eruel enough
to look down upon waifs and foundlings. An unwarranted, . contemptible
prejudice exists against boys and girls reared by the community. We'd
rather not have sons and daughters marry them.
. Shame upon us if we thus regard sailors’ and soldiers’ tots. They are
Wards of the Republie, not objects of charity — creditors of America who
may proudly exact respect, with the consciousness of greater benefits con
ferred upon the state than it can possibly offer in return.
Giratitude demands for them happy surroundings, tender care, com
forts, recreation, thorough edueation, preference in West Point and Annapo
lis, cadetships and Federal appointments.
The member of Congress who introduces a successful bill to these ends
will add an inch to Pershing’s bayonets and consecrate his fellows to a glo
rious obligation.
The Mirror Tells the Truth—To Others
HAT isn’t you smirking in the glass. Vanjty' is a caricaturist, not a
T likeness painter. She omits squints and warts, covers paunches and
" hides bald spofs. If your mirror told the truth, you'd seek it less
often. Physical eonceit betrays a shallow pate. Self-admiration is
a sign of unreliability. A man intensely interested in his appearance is
not sufficiently intent upon his work to hold high position. ~Human pea
cocks don’t ornament main offices. ; '
Copyright, 1918, by Merbert Kaufman. Great Britain and All Other Rights Reserved.
The Deathless Story |
HEN the last sword is a plough’Share and the
last war-trampled plain g
Has been furrowed and its scars are hid be
neath a rug of grain; .
When the nations’ hates are sated and the ancient
feuds have died; - ;
When the Mongol lust is vanished and the last gun laid
-aside; i
When the last despot’s ambition 1s a memory of the
grave; 4
When we know not tsar, nor emperor, nor king, nor
serf, nor slave; ) Lo
Men will tell the deathless story of the Belgians’ splen
did code, :
When for God and king and glory, az Liege they keld
the road. «
L/
Fat, Fatuous and Helpless
TOULD this war terminate presently, rest assured
far too many of us will be convinced that the mere
entry of America stopped the row, and another
‘era of fatuous delusions and empty brag may be
expected. :
There are still millions hereabouts who haven’t
quite lost the notion that we’re such natural warriors,
such world-feared scrappers, that the whole universe
trembles at Uncle Sam’s fist. b
The Store Stove Club, the Whittling Society and
Pompous B. Bombast, Esq., don’t yet admit local vul
nerability. With them, licking our weight in wildeats
is a regular talent—an exclusive genius. ,
Because of that obsession, these United States
were perilously unready to uphold national dignity at
a very critical hour. KEvents prove we were babes in
the International Woods, woefully provineial, growing
temptingly fat without claws—short-sighted and in
genuous—llong a helpless fold for any strong wolf
pack.
We were betting on the “Minute Man” and discov
ered, hardly in time, that he’s too much of a “last
minute man” for modern warfare.
Twelve months ago, several foreign powers eould
have caught us off guard and inflicted a prompt and
thorough drubbing. .
One shudders to contemplate what might have
happened had the challenge gone to a Germany free to
attack at the word “go.”
The call to arms not alone revealed military inefficiency,
but unsuspected industrial incompetence. .
It has shown us in how many ways we should have been
shrewder and thriftier; it has sped our clocks and bred a eon
science that ensplendors history.
We behold public and private interests wearing the same
yoke, nobly yielding priorities and privileges for the PR -
We view voluntary economic reforms yesterday dared not
yearn for.,
We have alréady won victories over selfishness and misun
derstanding, to well requite sacrifices. Men and millions, faith,
fingers and factories in common, salute Old Glory.
If we can mobolize community strength—if we can bring
ourselves to lend fortunes, volunteer services and accept stint
to defend our rights, we can, by continuing to be worthy eiti
zens, forever insure them. ;
But it is quite in the cards, should peace be concluded be
fore our actual strength is required for a decision, that dema
gogy, ever alert to play upon the unsophisticated, the bigoted,
the ignorant and over-assured, will opportunize coming elec- -
tions, demean the gravity of this moment, assail the wisdom
and magnitude of current expenditures, declare that our weak
condition was exaggerated, fan the old fires of complacency,
offer to rescind blood-bought legislation, flatter and rant
itself back to control, resurrect the pork barrel, unleash the
profiteer, again hamstring army and navy, and seduce the Re
public for the next ready and rapacious foe.
Pray God we never lose present sanity.
Your Personal Enemy
EMEMBER this man day and night. Never forget the
R wrongs he has heaped upon you; the sufferings he is
causing; the griefs and desolations, discomforts and
| losses he is occasioning you. :
Fight him with ideas and dollars and service,
Fight him with Liberty Bonds, zeal and resolution.
He stuck your son in a Flanders trench; he wrecked your
business; he made you pay double for clothes and bread and
meat; he halved your baby’s bottle of milk; he requisitioned
Your income for taxes and super-taxes; he emptied your sugar
bowl; he cut off your heat; he depressed the value of your se
curities and real estate : his name is Wilhelm of Prussia, Kaiser
of the Germans, Ghoul of Belgium, Assassin of Syria and Ar
menia, pirate, vandal, spy, marplot, bully, slaver, well-poisoner,
wrecker of churches, looter of holy shrines, treaty breaker and
arch-blight of civilization. ;
The unusual is seldom obvi
ous—that’s why it’s unusual.
Inventions are inevitably crude
at birth, but so were you—so
was the universe.