Page Fourteen
January 1927
THE UNITED AMERICAN
on immunity in their cunning lingual style which usually
“lets them out” as only having related things that “are said,”
hence is not a libel. Then, again, the legal road that leads
to conviction of such people and the adjudication of suitable
damages for those who are injured, has become so filled with
technical obstructions, in form of “well founded” objections,
that such proceedings are now too involved and lengthy to
serve the purpose of our common ideas of adequate justice in
America. A democracy should jealously safeguard the portals
that lead to speedy settlement of disputes so that the poor
might seek and obtain redress for injuries to reputation and
to property, alike with the rich. There is nothing that con­
tributes to the stability and faith of a people in its govern­
ment where it is common for the people to complain: “what’s
the use of going into the courts—the lawyers and the judges
use too much law on everything, which all makes for delay,
and is just what the guy who is on the wrong side likes,
because that all helps him in making his getaway through
the customary ‘law’s delay.’ Meantime I lose all the time
and money playing a game I do not know anything about.”
There is a leak somewhere. A porthole is open. We should
stop the leak and shut the porthole before we allow a few
careless citizens to scuttle the ship.
They are still night riding in full regalia and
flogging men in the Southern states under cover of darkness.
Strange that these beastly practices of the days of the carpet­
baggers could be revived in an age of such supposed en­
lightenment as ours. All of which gives strength to the con­
tention that education is only skin deep and shows that a
lot of Americans have failed to acquire either civic intelli­
gence nor respect for law and proper conduct of government.
When fools take the law into their own hands either to do
certain things forbidden by law, or to punish without any
regard for law anyone suspected of a wrong, there is an
open admission of a government that is weak in spots as much
as there is an admission that a lot of people likewise have
lost faith in government, hence usurp the function of their
government. The men who are in charge of the governmental
functions in a government that guarantees protection to every­
one living within its jurisdiction, who fail to suppress law­
lessness of that sort, should resign from office, every one of
them, and thereby, at least, disprove the natural aspersion that
they “stand in” with the lawless gang and lack the courage
and stamina necessary to make every citizen recognize the
government and cease to usurp its functions.
It is said that the French people are beginning to
feel dreadfully blue over the present outlook for a wine
shortage in France. Wine prices have already increased
greatly and before spring comes, wine will, no doubt, be beyond
the means of the working people. For the moment the
French are not seriously concerned over prohibition in other
countries for they have nothing to export. An annual wine
crop in France is seventy-five million hectoliter. The average
annual domestic consumption in France is fifty million hec­
toliter. The 1926 wine crop netted only forty-two million hec­
toliter, hence fell short of the domestic requirements. In
dividing the annual consumption among the people we find
that every man, woman and child in France must drink yearly
over thirty-seven gallons of wine, each, in order to make this
wine consumption possible, But, then, if we reduce this wine
consumption to a daily rationing, we find that each will have
to get along with a little less than a pint of wine a day. Of
course, taking it for granted that the children don’t drink much
wine, it brings up the average for the adults considerably.
The French may seem deucidly addicted to strong drink, but
there are a lot of people in the United States who drink more
than the French do, and French wine couldn’t begin to satisfy
them either.
Those who are dreading the old maid stage of
life may find comfort in the knowledge that London has just
declared the peppy old maids the best office workers, and Irving
Garland, eficiency expert, declares the old maid far superior
to the modern flapper who thinks too much about her clothing,
her beau and the powder on her nose, to have any real interest
in the work of the office. The old maid, settled in spinsterhood,
says Garland, is bothered by these flapper interests no longer.
She has trained herself to think of other things than men,
dress and pleasure after working hours. Her usefulness in
the interest of her employer is therefore incomparable with
that of anyone of the young things who may be found in any
office, half of the time when unobserved, with a powder puff
in one hand and an open compact in the other. The “discovery”
may be new in England, but we have known this a long time
over here in Uncle Sam’s country. Here the peppy old maids
are rated so highly that business houses list them among their
assets, by heck!
The revision of old prayer books, which it is hoped
will bridge some of the church schisms of the present day, may
solve the denominational problems, but it isn’t likely. What­
ever the convocations of Canterbury and York may agree upon
may be satisfactory enough, but the impelling force in religion
depends less on convocations and prayer books, but more on
the spiritual heart beat of the individual.
It is well to take life seriously, but not too seriously,
for you will never get out of it alive.
THE CREATIVE POWER OF THOUGHT
By James Allen
S YOU THINK, you travel; and as you love, you attract.
You are today where your thoughts have brought you;
you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. You
cannot escape the result of your thoughts, but you can endure
and learn, can accept and be glad. You will realize the vision
(not the idle wish) of your heart, be it base or beautiful, or
a mixture of both, for you will always gravitate towards
that which you secretly must love. Into your hands will be
placed the exact results of your thoughts; you will receive
that which you earn; no more, no less. Whatever your present
environment may be, you will fall, remain, or, so rise with
your thoughts, your vision, your ideal. You will become
as small or as big as your dominant aspiration.
WITH THE “NEWS-WRITERS”
To be a news-writer nowadays doesn’t seem at all difficult,
when such lingual style, gathered from the field at large, can
appease the reading public:
“Mrs. Jones of Cactus Creek, let a can opener slip last
week and cut herself in the pantry.”
“A mischievous lad of Piletown threw a stone and struck
Mr. Pike in the alley last Tuesday.”
“Joe Doe climbed on the roof of his house last week looking
for a leak, and fell, striking himself on the back porch.”
“While Harold Green was escorting Miss Violet Wise from
the church social last Saturday night a savage dog attacked
them and bit Mr. Green several times on the public square.”
“Isaiah Trimmer of Running Creek was playing with a
cat Friday when it scratched him on the veranda.”
“Mr. Fond while harnessing a broncho last Saturday was
kicked just south of the corn crib.”
THE GETTYSBURG ORATION
(Continued from Page Eight)
careful in the performance of our civic duties. If
we do this every new law will be for our good, every
act of our officers will be in our interest, every law
will be so enforced as to protect us and our property
and our rights. Our government is in the fullest
sense for us, the people of America.
Let us then as American citizens bear these facts
in mind and let us faithfully uphold this government
of ours, zealously obey and enforce its laws, carefully
study the measures to be voted on, the men to be
voted for. In no other way can the fundamental
principles of our government be fully carried into
effect.