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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (March 4, 1917)
---- -V. THE SUXDAT OltEGONIAX, PORTLAND, MATICH 4, 1917. Every dogged worker has his day Find yourself before you seek success . -J. 5-'- -V';.. Don't Be So Modest; Speak Up! " BY HERBERT KAUFMAN The Adam Family lifted itself to prevailing eminence by its own boot-straps. The founders of your distinguished line were exceedingly unpleasant and resourceless individ uals quite inferior to many contemporary beasts with whom in common .they shared numer ous habits and impulses. Dauntless resolution is entirely responsible for their evolution from a pack of mumbling animals into the recent editions of man. We humans were sad bungles back there in the ooze days, but we possessed a benefice denied all other living things a sullen spark of Divine fire a flicker of intelligence which aeons of fanning and fostering finally coaxed into an all-revealing blaze. We are entirely self-taught and mainly self-wrought. Pause to think what we've made for and of ourselves as we groped through the epizootic, pleistocene, paleolithic and other jaw-breaking (and head-cracking) ages inventing words, taming herds, figuring out the intricacies of weaving, the trick of basketry, contriving weapons and implements, pounding metal out of the rocks and (Heaven knows how) tools out of trie metal devis ing codes for self-preservation guessing the healing secrets in herbs and barks until we've reached the incredible competence, exemplified by the comforts, utilities and humani ties of 1917. Makes you proud of the race, doesn't it? Sends a thrill jiggling along your spine when ypu glance down the road by which we came to our splendid "place in the sun' But what particular cause have we to be proud of you what's" your share in the achievement? Surely, out of the thousands of visible little contrivances, you contributed at least an improved fish-hook or a simpler safety-pin or possibly you're responsible for a more durable varnish. Perhaps we must thank you for a sure-fire spark-plug, or did you write one of the hun dred songs published last week, or are you listed on the contents page of one of our so abundant periodicals? On the other hand, you may be the patentee of an automatic wringer, the projector of a land reclamation enterprise. Did you suggest some of the efficiencies now practiced in the various shops, offices and foundries of the Nation? Don't be so modest speak up identify yourself. It's quite natural to assume that with so many accessible formulas and available machines for transmuting any kind of an idea into tangible form, you've applied your million years' accumulation of experience, observation, fact, theory and fancy to at least one apparent opportunity. Or are you just another parasite taking everything as a matter of course permitting determination and imagination to lie dormant in the exhaustless treasure chest of reason? The past did its duty by you and in turn you owe the future a little thinking a little trying. Do something and count. w Verses Herbert KauGnaa mm If a record is scratchy a bit on the go, Thaf s forgotten as soon as the perfect notes flow. Don't let a false start Cut a scar on your heart 1 The end after all's the signif icant part. The knowledge we gain from rebuff and delay. If promptly invested, is worth what we pay. No man is born road wise. We're all apt to stray When in search of the way To the crest and the best The route to success Can't be found in a day. It's a poor sort of courage that quits at one blow; It's a pinchbeck ambition that seeks but one show. i'Very Sorry, But It's Our Rule" A RULE has no judgment and therefore can't cover any exception. It is a formula of conduct for certain expected situations. When the un expected happens common-sense must determine what to do with it. Just as guide books are useless in districts for which they were not written, regulations are similarly inapplicable to circumstances for which they were not designed. Because business must pay such heavy penalties for blind ad herence to the rules laid down for employes, the man or woman who dares to think in an emergency and apply sound reasoning to special cases can practically dictate his own terms of employment. Such folk are born man-' agers; they have discretion the first quality of leadership. When all's said, the main occupation of great men is preventing the asininities of little ones. As Old Cyrus Simmons Would Say HOT heads and cold feet are silent partners in every other bankruptcy. Education will give an ass common-sense to the same extent that bleaching a crow will change his caw. Face your errors before they fire you a buried mistake always leaves its bones. Don't write big word advertisements for my goods. Rembrandt paint ed pictures children can understand. The Bible is clear to the humblest mind. All great work is very simple. If most firms lose as much as I have through hesitating employes, I want to say that the only real "Yellow Peril" we need bother about is the yellow streak. It wasn't so important to find the North Pole as to prove that it could be done. After that job, don't tell me it's impossible to sell anybody a bill of .merchandise. The man without a court of appeals in his mind is ruled by many a fool decision. t. ! I; 5- TKe Constitution WHEN the Constitution was framed its authors measured the distance to Europe with sail cloth instead of propeller blades. They thought that we could elect any expedient degree of isolation, hold aloof from international wrangles and run indefinitely on an eighteenth cen tury schedule. Steam was still a secret force; electricity, "another Franklin trick." The biggest transports wouldn't hold one good gulp of forty-five centimeter gun fodder and frigates fought at speaking-trumpet range. The cable, much less wireless, had not even prom ised to sew up the gaps between the hemispheres. Inter-ocean communication was such a long drawn affair that folks had abundant opportunity to consider any National policy while governments were holding par leys. Progress was stumbling along rough and ready highways, with Prejudice and Precedent tugging at her skirts. Then suddenly she spied a strand of copper wire and a puff of kettle mist and fashioned them into a pair o wings. Even Jefferson and Hamilton could not foresee the astounding estate of the new Republic. Had they dreamed of a United States destined to command first rank as an agricultural and industrial commonwealth (and therefore to grow more dependent upon foreign business each year) it must be assumed that the instrument which immortalizes their names would have been different in several respects. They could merely plan for a period and a country with which they were familiar by their lights, no men could have possessed a truer vision. But it is inevitable, when we weigh the many con ditions which they were unable to anticipate, that this document which fitted the requirements of a gangling young state, shall, as we grow to full stature, require considerable patching and alteration. Their wisdom did not provide guidance in emer gencies such as now embarrass us. We are not self -continent we aire too great for in sularityour yields and products exceed domestic con sumption we must be world traders on a constantly greater scale and as such cannot avoid any issues which seriously affect pur fortunes. ' So we must stand prepared to face the abrogation of doctrines and policies as they fail to serve the changing hour. We are irrevocably committed to no judgment of the past. Tomorrow will discard and amend more than one article of the Constitution. Human judgment is always fallible when it undertakes to decide too far ahead. We have been drawn into a game for which the majority of the players form the rules and, at need, must revise our own accordingly. Believe Me, Bo! I BEEN readin' by the papers of this jitney submarine Which a crew of one can shoot and run if true, I bare my bean. There was even pictures of the runt exposin' all its parts And a full description of the way it stops and dives and starts. They say we own the patent-rights ; then why this sucker play Of puttin' Europe hep to the invention right away? We have a fall guy habit here of tippin' off our mitt. Do other countries spill their latest stunts to us ? not nit. I'm a roughneck, so excuse me if I'm gettin' off my beat. But it looks to me the U. S. A. is very easy meat. They got the best ideas from us they're usin' in the war. We had first crack at Maxims, submarines, airships, before The other nations got them. If we'd a grabbed 'em and laid low, They couldn't disregard our wishes now, Believe Me, Bo! One word from Uncle Sam and this big sluggin' match would cease. Control of such inventions would compel the world to peace. I'm a hick, I don't know nothin' and I may be wrong or right, But we ought to have a law to keep our war plans locked up tight. Refuse to Do H THOSE who use dirty tools secretly despise them. Men who carry out shady instructions immedi ately pave the way to their own dismissal. The very employers who profit through crooked underlings thereafter resent their presence in the organization. Whoever prostitutes his principles for hire is logically held ready to seize the first favorable opportunity to advantage himself by theft or treachery. Nobody -can strengthen his position by weakness. Conscienceless executives, above all others, value the integrity which s t 1 T J 1 J. J J 1 t tney ao not possess ana pay sincere respect to tne iorce of character which refuses to read into the obligations of employment' submission to improper commands. i BJOJTTIU GUT, 117, flX HERBERT KAVCJUAIT, UIUiAT JSMTAXX JLXD A Ti OXBSB BIGHTS B3ttYIV .
