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About The Chemawa American (Chemawa, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 1919)
T H E C H E M A W A A M E R IC A N PAGE 4 LOOK FOR THE TRUTH T h ere are a num ber of w ell-know n and w idely quoted proverbial sayings in our lan g u ag e w hich, be cause they are epigram m atic in form and hoary w ith age, are w rongly regarded as infallible, ind isp u tab le tru th s. Such say in g s— fortunately only an insignificant few am ong th o u san d s of pure golden n u g g ets of h u man w isd o m —have a pernicious influence because they are often in terp reted too broadly and too literally and then used to excuse w rong-doing. F or instance people often rem ind them selves and each other th at “ all is fair in love and w a r ,” seeking th u s to gloss over practices w hich they know to be evil both in h eren tly and in their effects. E v ery right- m inded th in k in g person readily recognizes that n o th ing that is not fair and honorable in th e ev ery -d ay , prosaic relations of life is fair in love. S im ilarlv there are certain practices w hich are rig h tly regarded by all honest men and by in tern atio n al law as en tirely unfair, inhu m an and u n ju st in war; all of the tru ly civilized nations religiously avoid them . N o-one by any kind of logic can show th at it is fair to com pel m ilitary or civilian prisoners of w ar to work under fire from the guns of th eir co m p atrio ts, to put poison in w ells, to scatter deadly m icrobes, to bomb hospitals or attack hospital sh ip s— alth o u g h the G e r m ans, whose elastic m orals and convenient philosophy made a n y th in g fair and justifiable if it offered them any advantage, were g uilty of ju st such offenses and num erous o th ers as bad or worse in th e late w ar. Clearly it w ould be unw ise in m any instances to follow literally the advice a ttrib u te d to C ervantes: “ W hen thou art at Rome do as they do at R o m e .” Y et people often take th is counsel as an excuse for d o ing when they are am ong stran g ers th in g s w hich they would blush to do am ong th eir neighbors and friends. No arg u m en t is needed to show th a t it would be an act of hypocrisy, an un m istak ab le in d icatio n of moral w eakness, for a professed total abstain er, a m an who tries to w alk u p rig h tly before those w ith whom he associates daily, seeking to avoid ev e ry th in g th a t is generally regarded in his com m unity as evil and im m oral, to indulge in stro n g d rin k w hen he was am ong d rin k ers, to gam ble w hen be found him self in a g am bling crow d or to steal if those in w hose com pany he happened to be stole. T h e saying “ a bad beginning m akes a good en d in g ,” is never necessarily tru e. If a bad b eg in n in g really assured a good en d in g no sane person w ould ta k e pains to sta rt a building on a good solid fo u n d a tion; to build an education on a logical, substantial gro u n d w o rk or to sta rt a business career u n d er c o n d i tion as favorable as possible. In stead of try in g for an auspicious b eg inning of th eir u n d erta k in g s men w ould all strive for th e w orst one possible, w ould deliberately seek to bungle ev ery th in g most stupidly at the outset. E veryone can recall u n d ertak in g s th a t have started inauspiciously and apparently w ith ev ery th in g w holly ag ain st th e ir success and yet they came out in the end perfectly fine and well. T he same people will as read ily instance projects w hich started bad and ended as bad as they started — some of them even worse. Likew ise m ost of us have seen th in g s start out in the most encouraging m anner im aginable and then end in indifferent success, frequently in u tter failure. As a rule, th o u g h , w hatever sta rts well ends well. O b viously, th e chances are all against a th in g that gets a bad sta rt, because it is handicapped from the b eg in n in g and unfavorable conditions are m ore likely than not to rem ain unfavorable until the end, if they don t grow worse. W e are often told th a t “ the better th e day the better the d e e d ” and m any people accept the statem en t at its full face value. Its fallacy is readily discoverable; if a deed is bad it is bad, no m atter how good the day, and if it is good, how can th e day possibly m ake it a n y th in g else? W hat are “ g o o d ” and “ b a d ” days, a n y how? If it were actually and literally tru e , as m any people say and believe, th a t “ early to bed and early to rise m akes a m an h ealth y , w ealthy and w ise ,” m any people would have h ealth, w ealth and wisdom in abundance w ho are decidedly shy on part or all of these item s. On the other hand, m any who aie living in opulence, w ith fairly good health and some m easure of wisdom, would be dead or else gasping out the last few breaths of a m iserably afflicted life, in ta tte rs and rags, and th e proverbial last y e a r’s b ird ’s-nest w ould be a w hole lib rary of know ledge in com parison w ith th e ir scanty stock ot wisdom. N um erous other venerable sayings, as well as pro verbial statem ents of a later vintage, all, like the foregoing, more or less m isleading, could be nam ed. Let us all be on our g u ard against g u lp in g down as sterlin g tru th any and every statem ent, w hether old or new , th a t comes along cam ouflaged as sim on-pure, 18-carat w isdom . As we have tried to show , some of them m ay lead into error; all whose tru th is not perfectly obvious should be carefully and honestly analyzed before we accept them literally and m ake them p art of the g u id in g philosophy of our lives. WHO M AY W E A R U N IFO R M S T h e war d ep artm en t gives out th e follow ing in fo rm a tion relative to the th e w earing of th e U. S. arm y u n i form : Reserve officers not on active du ty may w ear th e uniform of th eir corps and rank on occasion of m ilitary cerem ony, on public holidays, and when d irectin g or in stru c tin g cadets. T he proper collar in sig n ia, “ U. S .” w ith superim posed “ R ” in g ilt, m ust then be w orn. Bv a recent act of congress anyone w ho served in th e arm y d u rin g the late war is allowed to w’ear th e uniform of his rank if m arked w ith th e red chevron. U nder the sam e provision reserve officers may wear— w ith the prescribed red chevron— the u n i form they were authorized to w ear at the date of th eir discharge from active service.
