The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-07-06
FROM OTHER PENS
THINGS WORTH WHILE"

With this alluring title, Thomas
wentworth Higginson has written a
very pleasing little volume of essays.
Colonel Higginson is a writer Of many
gifts, because he does not confine his
thinking to one or even two channels,
but permits the inundating food of
his reflections to spread, like Nile,
over all meadows, enriching vast
| areas with remarkable fecund, if
somewhat thin, overlay of thought.
What. precisely. are the things worth
while" to us? Things that are worth
while to others are manifestly. often
painfully, not worth while to our
minds and hearts. Are there certain
definite things. in an age of pragma-
tic thinking, of which one may posi-
lively assert that they are worth
while?" To each one there are such
things; but are they the same things
Now, to take, at once, a sharply
controvertcd case, Colonel Higginson
seems to think that friendship is
equal to, probably higher than, the
mutual love of man and woman. But
can the lesser Include the greater?
Love includes all lesser emotions. And
to the lover friendship seems but a
pallid specter. Who will say that the
friendship of David and Jonathan was
quite so sweet and quite so ennobling
as the love of Beazr and Ruth, or of
Dante and Beatrice2 Fine and con-
slant friendships are because of their
nature, very rare. They demand too
much sacrifice without compensation.
Love, offering a world of bliss. can
imperiously demand of us every sac
rff1ce of self. Both are worth while:
but love is infinitely worth while. To
compare the two Is to reveal an ig-
norance and want Of appreciation of
earth's one supreme passion and joy.
and to admit a fatal disqualification
of Observation-Disclosures Is. CO. State.
A NATION OF SPENDTHRIFTS
Nature having put within the con-
fines Of the United States more re-
sources than ever blessed any other
people of the globe, it is little wonder
that Americans have become extrava-
CANT and wasteful. We have wasted
in everything and are wasting more
today. Forests unmatched in value
clothed the hills and mountains and
valleys. so that originally the destruc-
ton of trees was a necessity. The
pioneer had to cut his way into
wilderness or starve. This is no longer
true, but the habit of wasting timber
that came down for a couple of CEN
turtles is now not easily overcome.
So it is with coal. James ]. Hill
points out that the per capita con-
sumption of that fuel was only half
ton year SO years ago, and now it
is five tons. We have more coal than
any other people. therefore we waste
it. 1t is said by travellers that an
ordinary American family wastes
enough food each day to feed five
Japanese and keep them in sound
health. We grow more foodstuffs
than are produced anywhere else I'M
der the sun, therefore it seems I'M
necessary to be sparing.
There is no way in which Ameri-
cans are not extravagant. The poor
as we'll as the rich are relatively
wasteful when compared with foreign
peoples We earn more and spend
faster, grow more and destroy with
more reckless hand than any other
race. With extravaganza so highly
developed a trait in the individuals of
all grades Of life, it is inevitable that
our governments, local and state.
should be carried along at an equal
degree of thriftfulness. Hence a large
part of so-called graft is really not
such. but only waste.-Philadelphi
Press.