Page Thirteen
THE UNITED AMERICAN
December 1926
in the metric measurements in order to make a tang
ible beginning to an eventual adoption of the metric
system for our nation. In his emphatic way of putting
things Dr. McFarren made these salient points:
The French child learns measurement in this manner in
half the time, and with one-half the effort, and much more
thoroughly than the American pupil twice his age. They de
velop naturally into logicians and mathematicians.
Why should the bright street urchin who makes change
for your morning paper with the accuracy of a bank cashier,
have to spend weary years in school before commencing to
learn the merchandise side of calculations ? Because our
weights and measures, unlike our simple currency, which
is the envy of the world, are still undecimalized. And the
labyrinth of fable we miscall arithmetic, which the European
youth escapes, squanders much of the precious interval in
nothing more educational than a memorized smattering, to
the more or less permanent clouding and crippling of the
plastic mind.
Pointed, but he has a margin for his conclusions
if we only care to consider facts. Some day it is going
to be a real issue in the United States. Why don’t we
take up the metric system gradually and let it work its
own way into the minds of the American people?
Is there anyone who can give us a tangible reason
for this apparent educational delinquency?
His Majesty, Il Duce Mussolini, has given the
Italian people a new goal to strive for—his panacea is hard
work, discipline and large families. He promises ample re
wards for those who show themselves to be hardworking, well
disciplined and prolific. Margaret Sanger evidentally is all
“wet” on the subject of the crowded cradle, for Mussolini
should know something about the blessings that are so abun-
dantly in store for those who multiply the earth, without
means to provide proper care for their dependents. One
thing is certain that a working man with a large flock of
children to feed and clothe will always be hard working if
he is not to be worsted in his battle with poverty. We always
suspected that there was something wrong with fascism, now
we know it, for the master fascistimo recommends the old
dope that kept the old tyrants on their tottering thrones—
keep the masses religiously interested in having large families
and they will so readily be disciplined into hard work that
they will have no time for training their intellect for eventual
participation in matters of political government.
The Soviet organizers who somehow run afoul of
the law* in Bridgeman, Michigan, are more careful elsewhere,
where they are about their business of “educating” the
workers in the precepts of this new social and political order.
One thing which they accomplished in Bridgeman is worthy of
notice and that is the way “the friends” rallied to the cause
when the appeal for money for defense purposes went forth.
Misguided sympathy, of course, but it is a clear and unmistak
able indication that the number of kindred souls is not
diminishing.
Criticising the courts for their decisions is some
thing to think of twice before you commence, unless you
want to go to jail for a little spell. An editor of the mid
eastern part of our country is in the “jug” now for having
said some uncomplimentary things about the courts some
where in his locality. Yet, notice the utter abandon with
which people criticise the acquittal of Albert B. Fall and
Edward L. Doheny ? No one has so far gone to jail for
speaking their minds on the “acquittal” of those two friends
whom the people firmly believe to be guilty of having used
the position Mr. Fall occupied as Secretary of the Interior in
the late President Harding’s Cabinet, to obtain leases of val
uable oil lands which the Doheny interests subsequently tapped
for private gain. The body that conducted the inquiry may
not care much, but public opinion in America, at least in this
instance, is plainly not inclined to accept the verdict as ade
quately just and fair.
. . 13
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East Side Mill & Lumber Company
GENERAL MILL WORK
Manufacturers of
|i“aliK LUMBER
Phone SEllwood 0597
OFFICE AND MILL:
Foot of Spokane Avenue
Oregon Door Company
East Side Box Company
Sash and Doors
Box Shooks, Crates
Phone Sellwood 0062
Foot of Spokane Avenue
Phone Sellwood 0597
Foot of Spokane Avenue
PORTLAND, OREGON
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