Page Eighteen
THE UNITED AMERICAN
not be weakened. Those who are otherwise minded are either
stupid or they have sinister interest in seeing another world
holocaust.
The mantle of the late Senator Robert M. La Follette,
which the citizens of Wisconsin chose to place on the shoulders
of his young son, Robert, Jr., may perpetuate the name La
Follette on the Senate roster, but the young immature neophyte
cannot possibly take old Bob’s place though he may occupy his
seat. Much may pass on as an inheritance, but the mental
equipment of the seasoned veteran, that requires long years
of experience on the battlefield of life to acquire, cannot be
transferred at will to anyone, least of all to a youth in life’s
rookie class. The sons of men endowed with rare qualities
enabling them to ascend the peak of public esteem, are to be
pitied when, goaded by public clamor and drunk with reflected
glory, they attempt to assume the position of the fallen sire.
If the son of a great man would begin where his father began,
fighting his own battles, spurred on by the example of a noble
sire, then he should find the name and its fame an asset, in
proportion to his ability to demonstrate traits of paternal
qualities. The responsibilities of the greater trust are too
heavy for young shoulders and the mental strain too great
for the boy who just closed the nursery door behind him.
When we give it a thought that less than one per
cent, of the total number of business concerns in this country
fail in the course of a year, there is little reason for the
fancied depression which some of our most prosperous business
men are so prone to display on the slightest pretext. This ratio
of healthy business conditions has been maintained for more
than a decade. Only twice in the last fifteen years has the
proportion of failures exceeded one per cent, and then only
by a slight fraction. There are more than two million business
concerns in the United States, but there are some people who
are blessed with a business patronage that make their insti
tutions stronger with every passing year, yet their sour dis
position is such that it would be a blessing to the country if
they failed and thereby made room for the right minded chap
who is happy, pleasant and content though he may never get
so rich and independent that he can afford to “tell the world
to go to----- .”
DECEMBER 1925
place Nick in the foreground and think of the former “prin
cess” as “the Speaker’s wife.” She is quoted as having
said that she now Understands at last what the inferiority
complex is like. Nick may not be an outstanding orator, but
his long association with the Roosevelt clan should be good
for sound parliamentarian ideas, and as that is one of the es
sential virtues in a Speaker, here is hoping that Nicholas
Longworth, long Congressman from Ohio, famous because he
married Alice Roosevelt, may use the gavel wisely and prove
a credit to the country, as Speaker of the House.
In order that there may be some slight chance of
understanding between our generation and the generation in
the making, Jane Addams urges parents to keep in touch with
their young people. The admonition is not new, but inasmuch
as very little heed has been given this warning in the past,
proof of which may be seen in every direction, it might be well
to give the suggestion a little more than usual consideration.
The present father and mother may find it will mean, for
them, to give up some of their “fast” parties in order to
become a little better acquainted with their progeny, during
the period of adolescence, and it may mean staying up quite
late at night to keep an eye on the carefree youth which is
pursuing pleasure dangerously close to the borderline of in
decorous conduct, but if it should mean the saving of our
civilization and augur a remorseless passing of the present
generation, it certainly is worth the price.
Men of some political attainments should learn to
know that they only cheapen themselves by relating to every
person who courteously offers a suggestion for business patron
age, a stereotyped story of being “hounded to death by every
body wanting something.” It certainly is a poor quality of
business ethics, for the man or woman they happen to be talk
ing to may never have called upon them before on any
business matter. If only some of the “big” boys perched on
comfortable mahogany “swivelers” could see themselves as
they force others to see them, through their tactless speech
and insolent manners, they would be apt to take up a “strictly
confidential” course of instructions in the simple rules of
cordial and courteous mannerisms befitting their stations as
political office holders, business executives or professionals.
Those who are chanting that everything is okey
The inheritance of a king has usually been measured
with the world and with our scheme of education and citizen
ship training, should find some way to silence Dr. Meiklejohn,
the former president of Amherst College, who insists that we
are suffering from third-rate teaching and lack of intellectual
freedom, and they should stop Dr. Hibben, president of Prince
ton University, from saying that the lecture system of dis
seminating information by wholesale is inadequate and that
instead the student should be trained to do his own thinking.
They should argue Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of
Columbia University, out of his notions that it isn’t enough
that men become “liberally educated” and know all about re
lativity, so long as they learn nothing whatsoever about
religion. These three renowned educators are either wrong or
right, but the trouble is that there seems to be such a slender
margin by which to prove them wrong and such an avalanche
of facts to prove them right, that the tin-horn chorus of the
self-satisfied is unable to sustain its discordant contentions.
in fabulous treasures, but when dowager queen Alexandra of
England passed away, few speculated about her wealth, for
beyond some costly gifts, collected during the years she was
reigning queen of England, she spent her annual allowance to
the last shilling to create cheer where fate had scattered
gloom among the people. At her bier England mourned.
While royalty paid its respects the people who knew the human
side of their queen shed tears of sorrow — her death was a
distinct and irreparable loss to them. She was an immigrant,
an adopted citizen of England. The love she bore for her
adopted country and its people was of that finer quality that
is pointed to as an example.
The average daily output of bituminous coal in
America, figured in tons, leaves the picture somewhat vague,
but as everybody has an idea how large a railroad coal car is,
a clever chap has figured out that it would take a train of
cars stretching from Washington, D. C., to New Haven, Con
necticut to haul it away. That gives us a better idea, provided
we figure out this distance and the number of cars that such
a distance requires.
A little less speed through life might produce that
longevity that has been cut down for most of us. It might be
great to collect a lot of thrills in the present, while the years
are resting lightly on our shoulders, but oh, for a little of that
summing-up period of life to put the finishing touches on
work carelessly done, wouldn’t it be great? The sunshine of
the “after years” must have brought sufficient compensation
for having traveled at a more moderate rate of speed earlier
in life to have made it worth the while, for Michelangelo who
lived till he was eighty-nine, for Voltaire who passed eighty-
four, for Victor Hugo, for Goethe, for Tennyson and for Herbert
Spencer, who lived till they passed the milepost at eighty-
three, for Gladstone, who reached eighty-nine, and for Titian
who was in his hundredth year when he closed his book of life.
The seat so long held down by Uncle Joe Cannon
has now been appropriated by Nicholas Longworth, form
erly known as “Alice Roosevelt’s husband,” and his first pro
clamation, as Speaker of the House of Representatives, is that
the chair will tolerate nothing but “unanimity”, this session.
If he is able to back this up the country should reverse its
opinion about the Roosevelt-Longworth plan of domesticity,
Buying your own liberty on the instalment plan
is an invention now about to function in Haukawng, an Indian
state in upper Burma. Under pressure from the mother govern
ment in England the rulers have agreed to suspend slavery
in Haukawng valley beginning next May first. A price is
to be put on the slaves in their several classifications and