Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-10-22
Strange.

said Puck.
And we are inclined to agree with
him when we observe:
That men toll their life long to
lay up money for their children,
when the worst calamity that can
befall a youth is to be relieved from
the need to work for living.
That mans pride and aim seems
to be to keep his wife in idleness
and luxury, and he considers him
self disgraced if she engages in USE
full work, when the greatest foe to
female virtue is idleness.
That all our greatness come from
struggle and danger, while we de-
vote our lives to avoiding these
things.
That the only faith that is worth
anything is the product of wrestling
with doubts, yet doubts we consider
to be irreligious.
That all the world is convinced of
the waste, stupidity, and madness
of war, while each nation impover-
ishes itself still in the endeavor to
prepare for war.
That individually we love our
children better than anything in the
world, while collectively, as city,
we leave no spaces for their play
grounds, but compel them to romp
in the streets, among the horses,
street cars and automobiles.
That we lock men up in prison
as an antidote to crime, and when
they come out they are more har-
dened criminals than before.
That we gather in churches and
worship Jesus, yet consider as per-
fectly absurd and irrational the
teachings He most insisted upon, de-
riding His faith in human nature,
His law of love, and His principle
non-resistance, while the thing
against which he warned us most
strictly. the heaping up of money,
is the one thing after which we are
all mad
That those of us most favored by
fortune are in the heated pursuit of
happiness, while we know very we'll
that nobody who pursued happiness
ever found it.
That we easily believe in selfish
ness and hate, which render us un-
happy, while it is hard for us to be-
lieve in love and goodness, which
make us happy.
That man should put an enemy
into his mouth to steal away his
brains"
That politics is universally des-
pissed among US, while the only pos
sible way to make a democracy sue
cessful If for every citizen to take
an active interest in politics.
That the accepted method of
preparing our sons and daughters
for life is to send them to institu-
tions sooted with medievalism, and
while but one person in a hundred
is by nature fitted to become a
scholar or literary person, we con-
tinue the useless effort to make
scholars out of those who are to be-
come merchants, hand workers,
statesmen, and housewives.
That while we all believe in ma
jority rule, our cities are still gov
erned by a compact minority COM
posed of men of deficient character.
That we exert the greatest effort
to be pleasant 20 strangers and mere
acquaintance, Tor whom we care
little or nothing, while we are ne
glectful, Indifferent and often cruel
to those we love most dearly.
That most of our worry is about
the past, which is gone forever, and
the future, which may never come,
while we omit to enjoy today, which
is all that we have to enjoy, and
That those who observe customs
and conventions are called wise and
safe, while those who believe in
their reason, listen to the dictates
of their heart, and trust their in
stinct are considered dangerous, If
not wicked.-Dr. Frank Crane.