The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1902-01-09
STARTING RIGHT FOR 1909.

of new year Vows, how to keep them
etc, There is difference OF opinion
AZ to the wisdom of making new year
vows.
The COMMONWEALTH intensely be.
lieves in new year VOWS for whatever
improvement one can make in
thoughts, acts, work and general living
We claim that one is better even fol
the desire to make improvement. The
following article by r. w. Bergengren
in the Saturday Evening Post gives
some clear cut and sensible views on
the subject:
"Unless there has been marked
change In human nature during the
past year, as many people will begin
1902 with series of good, If not &C
tually new, resolutions as began the
preceding year under similar condl-
tons. Not all Of these will subscribe
to a completely formulated contract
tor improved behavior-the majority,
in fact, will resolve subconsciousiy.
But the yearly making of resolutions
comes so pat with the beginning OF a
fresh calendar on the first of each sue
ceedlng January that the custom has
an Indefinite and altogether fortunate
tenaclty.
"It has been often repeated that
these good resolutions are like glass
balls in that they are made for the
sole purpose Of being broken. The
figure shows an inadequate knowledge
OF the uses of glass balls: before break
ing they are intended to serve a more
useful purpose in training the eye and
hand of a marksman. A good resoiu-
ton, even when broken, gives mental
training very much in the same
fashion. The process of making it and
OF honestly trying to carry it out is a
long and necessary first step toward
the mental strength that makes a
human being actually master of his
own actions. A faculty for comfort
for example, Is pleasant thing to
carry on a journey, but laz!ness is a
useless piece of luggage.
"Shccessful resolutions, all comic
writer's to the contrary, are really made
on the first of every January, but they
depend, like genuinely successful poll
tics, much more on commonsense
than on emotional impulse. A mar
who has been Incorporate in his owl
comfort-to keep to the one concrete
example of lazlness, or to its eyer
worse form, prCcrastination-csn hard
~ leap into activity and bod the pace
very long at time. He can, however
divide his daily existence into tWt
parts, during one Of which he ma,
busily tie up the loose ends of his oc
equations, and during the other devote
himself to doing nothing with all th'
success to be expected of bis past ex
peri5nce. Even If he fails in the Ell
fort the attempt is something toward
future success along the same line O
endeayor. There is much more reason
to respect the man who makes an,
breaks yearly set OF resolutions thar
70 respect the discouraged individual
who gives up trying after few failures
eff the whole ration should start on
to keep the same resolution the rea
value of Individual endeavor woul'
stand out more clearly, and the result
one may be optimistic enough to be
'ieye, might prove revelation to thos
who advance the broken-g glass theory
There is the subject of good citizen
<hir, for instance. We have recentl
seen, in one case, the result that io]
lows when a whole community be
comes vitality interested in its politics
and in another the result that come
from a merely conventional Interest
suppose that every citizen in the cour
try should resolve for one year to ur
derstand political questions, to thin
for himself, and to act up to his cor
victions. Even counting those VIII
fall by the wayside, the result Nigh
bring back the generally informed pr
!it;cal earnestness of our fir:
national elections and the actus
power felt by each man, IN the strengt
of his own knowledge, might go far t
re-affirm that resolution universally 0
the first of next January"
, CJJRE FOR TTTMRAGO