V.gabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

A philosopher of color recently remarked that "Dis heah represhun has been llooverin' oveh us so long it ain' skasely posstible to make bofe ends meet speshully when dey ain' but one end lef' and dat's de tail end."

"The years have brougnlrJ" Jrrui. nr,"rt gift if they have taught you to be kind."-E. H. Stuart.

Our Christmas editorial orr*b"L, "Wondrous Kind" has brought us more commendation, probably, than any other single thing that has appeared in this column in many years. It has been frequently reprinted, reproduced, and quoted.

Ponce de Leon roamed *" *.lrd seeking the Fountain of Youth and he had it with him all the time and didn't know it. The friendship, the trust, the good-will of the rest of the world is the Fountain of Youth, the Aladdin's lamp of true success, the one and only gateway to the Road of Happiness. Without it, business success is an empty urn, and financial accumulation turns gold to dross. But if you HAVE it, you have everything else included. Be agreeable ! Be friendly t *""* smiling ! BE KIND !

1932 will be a year of opportunity ! That is, every one of us will have the opportunity to do his level best in the particular work he has chosen. My rights only terminate where YOURS begin. And yours where MINE begins. We will have the opportunity to think" and speak, and work, and act as we think best to the end that we may have success and enjoy its fruits. For EVERY year, in this land of equal rights, is a year of opportunity. Let's be thankful for that.

"llard times," says the **" "*" those periods when people quit feeding the cow, and kick because she gives less milk"' :* t< * r read the following, th: .L"i u"r. There was nothing to show who said it: "The most congested, hardest-pounded street in the world. isn't Main Street or Fifth Avenue. The street on which humanity is bunched up more densely than any other, the world's most popular thoroughfare, is Rut Street. It is a broad, level stretch to nowhere-a grave with the ends knocked out. If you go forward today just as you did yesterday, without a new plan, thought, or hunch for the day-you're on Rut Street. If you are satisfied with doing as you did last week, or last month, you're pounding the pavernents of Rut Street."

This debutante-1932-hasn't been with us long enough as yet so. that we may safely attempt to judge her. But, somehow or another, we have the notion that she's going to prove gracious, charming, beautiful, and popular; or at least that she will seem so to us. You see we haven't been used to much, of late, and we'll be very easily pleased.

*t<*

That thought will bear a whole lot of studious contemplation. We are entirely too prone to assume that this depression is like unto a fever that has to run its course, and all we can do is try and bear it. Such an attitude of supine acquiescence and surrender is the fuel that feeds the depression and contributes to its continuity. I don't believe there ever was a time when individual effort, initiative, virility, faith, courage, sticktoitiveness, and a concentrated determination to DO something, was more vitally needed than it is today. Drifting with the tide rnust'eventually bring us to the falls below. It is strong swimmers that weneed'

* * r< rn this column t."t i"Jrru;J *". various and sundry aspersions on the unsuccessful prophets of 1931. While on that subject it might be well to mention one that guessed right. Senator Couzens, of Michigan, came out in 1926 with a national plea for a five day working week. So did Henry Ford. But their aims were very divergent. Ford wanted a five day week, but wanted the same amount of production as in six days, the extra day of rest to be the incentive to produce more per day and hour.

If each one of us in this country started today to do our little bit to relieve this present situation, we would soon find that one hundred and twenty million little bits made a great big mountain of useful effort. 'We can't drift out of this trouble. We've got to WORK out.

But Senator Couzens *."a"U ,l* ao ".ra down to five days work and five days product "as a medicine for present overproduction and blind speed". He said industry was going ahead at so blind a rate of speed that the country would soon be swamped with unsold goods, and a great depression would result. It is interesting to note that the nation generally laughed at Couzens, and approved of the modernistic philosophy of Henry. Looking backward we must place the medal of "wise prophet" on the laughed-at Senator, and laugh at Henry.

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