The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-09
A NEED FOR THE OLD.


New York Independent.
There is too much reason to fear that this
twentieth century, which Is Wanting itself
over all the ages Of the past, is trying to
make knowledge and enterprise take the
place of ripe wisdom. No one can compare
any modern work of man with correspond
ing work of earlier times without admit
ting that the modern product is crude or
tricky. 1t is shameful confession for a
scientific age to have to make. neverthe-
less 1t must be made, that there is but little
honest workmanship in any Industrial art
or trade to-day, and that strictly honest
goods have practically disappeared from
the markets of the world. An Iroquos moe
casin and a Navajo blanket are genuine
things. A machine-made shoe with scrap
filled soles and "all-wool' dress goods
grown on a cotton plantation are toilsomely
Fabricated lies. And even where deceit is
not worth while, there are haste and in
difterence to true standards and ideals in a
majority or modern activities. To go fast,
to accomplish what looks like a vast re-
suit, 10 make a big show, to hustle and puff,
and look as IL you were a portentously
busy fellow-this is the modern notion of
working and living. The man who cares
for the quality of his work, who loves to
linger over 1t patiently, finding satisfaction
In the thought that he is doing every bit of
IL In exactly the right way, Is one for whom
We suspect that there Is a close relation
between all this modern crudeness and the
brutal disregard for age which is being
manifested in every employment and pro-
1ession: Where to-day does one see in
trade, in business in the professions the
dlgn1ned man of ripe experience who has
lald by stores Of wisdom and who could i'm
part to younger men those traditions of
painstaking method which youth is pro-
verbally impatient of, but in disregard of
which no really worthy work has ever yet
trolley cars are youngsters who haven't yet
grown beyond the age at which boys think
IL Is smart to treat their betters roughly
and TO say impertinent things. Statesmen
and saleswomen, with few exceptions, are
or the age which assumes that elderly gen.
tlemen and gray-haired ladies should thank
fully receive advice about their most pri-
which cultivates the habit of furnishing
unappreciative customers by chilling in
attention; In brokers' offices, in banks and
In great manufacturing establishments
practically all work is carried on by young
Fellows, unable to conceive that they might
learn something from men of longer ex-
perience, and who are thankful when some
1althful gray-haired employe is dismissed
TO make room for one of the younger lot.
The saddest state OF affairs is found in
the professions, and especially in those
ing or public opinion. Every little while
some one asks why there is no great news
paper pal to-day. Time was when the Tribune,
the Springfield Republican helped to make
history Their opinions counted for some
thing That was when their editorial pages
were controlled by men of ripe experience.
Greeley, Dana, Raymond, Godkin and
sam Bowles were men of unlike minds
and of different characters. but they had
one qualification in common. They had
lived. They had stored up experience. They
We're not kids. The modern newspaper is
without influence because it is a product If
the kid mind.
In the universities the state of affairs
to become even worse The mod
ern university president has become in |
fected with the business iway of looking at |
things. He thinks he is running "a plant |
like cotton factory or barbed wire mill
and must turn out a certain number of in
teilects of assorted sizes every June. For |
this werk he needs lot of young hustlers |
In the professors chairs, who can do bust |
ness on the step lively plan of the troll |
ley car conductor And as TO the ministry, |
maed only Seas ns Sf to recall the ot-be
which the clergyman's usefulness is sup |
posed TO end. Indeed, there would almost |
seem 10 be no suitable place in the worlds |
work to-day for the man over sixty unless |
Z be the Supreme Court of the United |
States.
The whole situation. we say, is a sad one.
II is sad because it reveals an utter failure |
10 discriminate between the pretentious |
things and the real things in human life. 1t
s sad because the results will be more and
more destructive of quality of manner of |
appreciation of the sound and the beauti-
-ul, which only long years of hard expert
.nce can reproduce. When we have learned
o desire sound goods. careful workmanship
udicious decisions, considerable treatment
II patrons-in short, wisdom, rather than
lumbug, pretense. ''plunging' and "hust-
ing we shall again have in the employ
II corporations, in the newspaper offices
md in the universities men of age and ex-
'erience. Young men must do most of the
worlds hard and active work, but there is
work which they are incompetent to touch
An age which knows the difference between
wisdom and knowledge will retain for
hat work the men who are competent |
Wherever manner and quality are still in |
lemand. wherever real goods are still sold.
he man of experience is found