12
THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAJf, PORTLAND, JULY 29, 1917,
There Is No Hope for the
Man Whose Ambition Is
Weaker Than His
Self - Consciousness
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t a No Shame to Fail, fi f if ' A ' I J 3
but It Is a Shameful Y j JL JBL V I II . ' ' JJ
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Junk Heaps and Gold Mines
BY HERBERT KAUFMAN
The junk heaps of one generation are the gold mines of the next.
Uselessness is a temporary phase in the history of all matter. Sooner or later the Sons of
Ad am find unsuspected values in all their throwaways.
"We grow long-headed as we grow short-handed." Needs stimulate deeds. Knack is
born of lack. Appetites, science and business become investigative under stress.
Each period is forced to discover a fresh application for partially exploited resources.
Every century has indicted the preceding cycle of neglecting manifest opportunity.
What Tomorrow will do Yesterday could have accomplished. No generation ever realizes
its possibilities.
Necessity suckles ingenuity. Had papyrus existed in sufficient quantity for the graphic arts
the breaking down of wood fiber into news-stock would probably never have occurred to a
single mind.
Because fodder crops were suddenly too expensive and the meat demand too extensive,
cattle raisers had to find grain alternates: whereupon cotton seed disclosed its nutritious quali
ties and a new source of wealth appeared.
While cleanliness was a rare habit, the olive tree and the grease bucket sufficed for the
soapmaker's requirements, but as soon as hygiene established a world-wide case, we had no
recourse but to snoop about odd corners of the globe and paw through the refuse bin to obtain
another lot of substances. And behold! Superior oils were waiting in the cocoanut arid the
cotton seed, and millions' worth of glycerine ready for processing in their very tankage.
We are prone to make use of the nearest and frequently the dearest raw product. We sel
dom search or research in advance of a rising market. Experience is weary of teaching the same
time-worn lessons.
We regularly wait until famine begins to stalk the near horizons until production is threat
ened by a petering-out of some essential element, and then, after a preventable stretch of eco
nomic disorder and social hardship, promptly play Jack Horner and exultantly exhibit the plum
that could have been pulled out of Nature's pie all along.
Get your thinking caps on. Invent means to prevent misery. Governmental control of
scarce stuffs, however ably directed, won't solve the tangle of problems now complicating the
business of living.
There are more metals than we've smelted in the ores now employed by the crafts and
sciences.
Despised weeds are filled with drug bases, industrial chemicals, glues, binders and fertil
izers. Coal-tar and gasoline miser many another secret. Edible roots, herbs, berries and plants
are staring at us over four thousand miles of fertile continent. - The seas are full of delicious,
wholesome fish, which prejudice and ignorance alone keep there. Alfalfa and timothy are
potential and probably excellent breadstuffs.
We boast of our ability to meet emergency on her own terms and invariably to win the
game. We brag of the battles our wits have won for a glorious century and a half.
If ever we were challenged to make good that vaunt, the moment is right here.
Dig, Delve and DELIVER; it can be done.
We must have more fuel, more food, more building materials. We must find them where
they were not supposed to be.
Every farm, every forest, every mine, every work bench, every kitchen range offers a
chance for a gleaner of possibility. Help out!
VI
Verses FJUfclYim
Who told you that your place
was there,
Or can it be that you do not
care
Enough to rouse yourself and
dare
For something: better? Men
who play
Unnoted parts until they're
gray
And are content with failure's
pay
Can seldom find a cause to
blame
The circumstances of the
game.
Defeat brings them no sense
of shame.
They chose the courses they
pursue.
Yours is one case we have in
view.
Prove that we're wrong.
If it's untrue :
Get out and do.
Reasonable and Treasonable Prices
IT IS as vital to victory that we have shrewd entrepreneurs behind the
lines as it is important to place shrewd strategists in the field. Com
merce after all is our abiding trade. While military exigencies deserve
the right of way, at the same time trade demands competent administration.
Ninety odd millions of us must go on as usual, must have the means to
exploit enterprises occupations to provide livelihood outlets for products
and produce. The subtraction of so much high-willed and well-drilled labor
from essential vocations requires a super-average degree of enthusiasm and
alertness of the civilian remainder. We must not only furnish our forces
with tremendous commissary and munition stores, but provide stay-at-homes
with all requirements.
When the flags are furled and the drums are stilled and khaki's doffed
for overalls and office coats, the mechanic must find room for his dexterity,
the young merchant ready capital for his plans, the clerk an instantly avail
able position. Therefore, no one can criticise you for making money while
sounder or braver men are making history. But we do despise and con
demn and we do list with Judas and Benedict Arnold and every dastard of
the same ilk, all men and bodies of men who seek a selfish advantage in the
Nation's dire situation. Promotion and management deserve a proper
wage. Energy is entitled to a fair return. But to ask more now for a dollar
or an hour or an article than its just worth is blackmail and extortion.
We will stand for reasonable profits but not for treasonable ones.
COPYRIGHT. 117. BY HERBERT KAIFJU.1V, GREAT BRITAIN AND ILL OTHER RIGHTS RESERVK9
Girls They Leave Behind
WE DO not know his name he did not sign the
letter. But on the verge pf sailing for "some
where in France," the boy wrote and asked us
to say a word for the soldiers and sailors who "left
their girls behind them," giving a clear field to hang
back rivals.
"I'm not afraid," he said. "We must die somewhere,
sometime and I'd rather go down under the Stars and
Stripes than a falling safe or a joy-rider's automobile.
Lots of people do every day.
"What held me back from enlisting earlier was a
girl that I certainly do love an awful lot.
"I asked her to write to me regularly and promise
not to get married to anybody while I was away. And
she said she liked me too much for that.
"But you know how it is when you are not on hand
with the glad talk and the theater tickets and she
doesn't see you for months they get used to missing
you.
"And I thought if somebody like you would print a
little something suggesting that if every girl whose
steady was ready to fight for America, would promise
him that she'd pass up the others while he was at the
front, it would help thousands of young fellows to
make up their minds. I saw an article in the paper
which you wrote about 'cuckoos,' meaning doctors and
lawyers ornery enough to steal the practice of doctors
and lawyers who were away fighting. But I think the
worst 'cuckoo' of all is the slacker who snitches a sol
dier's sweetheart. That's a good name for them, too.
Will you please write something that will hit the
mark?"
(But after reading his letter, we're sure that the
boy himself has done that. So we've reprinted it in the
hope that it may catch the eye of "all the girls they left
behind them.")
"Even as You and I"
CROOKES invented the tube in which Roentgen
produced the X-ray. Years afterward Cooper
Hewitt asked the Scotch scientist where he hap
pened to be when the German announced his discovery.
"In South Africa hunting for gold," was the
answer.
Too many folks go too far afield for their fortunes.
If we peer hard enough, it's usually to be found near
the nose. The Pennsylvanian who sold his farm to
speculate in oil, only to hear within a month that the
year s record gusher was located on the property the
Mexican who begged in his own 'dobe doorway, when
all the while the mud of. his hut was filled with the
tailings of a carelessly worked mine, are not excep
tional cases.
Merchants by the score have experienced bank
.ruptcy on the sites which immediately after turned
their successors into millionaires. Most of us abandon
investments and projects too soon or are content with
superficial returns. Discarded shoes frequently have
a lot of wear still left in them and undervalued proposi
tions regularly carry observing, patient thinkers to
wealth and distinction.
Remember Crookes and properly develop your spe
cialty. Intensive study of your own game will gener
ally enable you to find a new light. Don't leave it for
the next man.
Get in on the Sky Floor
A BILLION dollars' worth of aeroplanes within the
next five years is not a far-flung prophecy. The
enormous sum recently appropriated by Con
gress to purchase wings for an overhead army, will
establish another vast industry with all the standard
izations characteristic of great commercial ventures.
Once we begin to turn out sound, light engines upon
a considerable scale, the remarkable record of the
automobile will probably be repeated. The wish to
soar the clouds is one of the oldest hankerings of the
race and as soon as the big white mechanical birds
come down to average purse-reach, the star-roads will
be crowded with human beings. It isn't a bit too early
to pick a likely location and be ready to secure the local
agency for one of the hundred makes soon destined to
command popular favor.
You've often kicked yourself because you didn't
foresee the vogue of the automobile. Well, the hand
writing's on the heavens read it and heed it. Save
your money and stand prepared to get in on the sky
floor. Your chance to get rich is in plane sight. Cheap,
reliable "upstairs roadsters" are rapidly drawing near.
The Open Book
TEMPER, anger and worry are talons on the hand
of Time. Those who cannot control themselves,
cannot conceal the accusative lines. Students of
human nature read from plainly printed types. Heart-to-heart
talks with the mirror explain many a reveal
ing fact. In one way or another, features proclaim
personality. We grow to look what we are. When did
you last take an honest peep at the glass?