The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-02-17
says UNCLE CIV

The budding ideal of the age is et-
f1ciency, and 1t is, viewed in all its a $
poets, the healthiest ideal with which the
world has ever had to do. Yet, none or
US is perfectly balanced and the danger
is that in our devotion To an excellenu
ideal we shall develop a race as cold and
hard as it is efficient. Under the CON-
petitive system, the tendency is for the
competent to look down upon the incom-
petent. and while this may be good for
the latter it is decidedly dangerous to tine
former.
He that attains efficiency at the cost Of
human sympathy has lost as much as he
mas Sained. Put the incompetent idealisr
of today in the balance against the I'M
feeling human thinking machine and the
beam won't bulge. The moral worth ard
the social value of the two are equal;
both are lacking.
The perfect man will never let brain
outstrip heart He had as we'll be a
simple, soft nuisance of a ne'er do well
and be in everybody's road as thos-
oughly capable clinkerfaced old cur
mudgeon in whom the milk of human
Kindness has curdled-
The road to success is necessarily more
or less of a selfish one, any way you take
it, and whatever your standard of sue
cess may be. The process of attaining
selfcentered. Once ones powers are de-
veloped the increasing gulf between one
and ones undeveloped neighbor is per-
manently widened, and if we not
careful the walls of mental exclusion that
we nave built about ourselves are per-
manently closed Our lot thereafter is
alone, in the world but not of it.
From the personal and the social stand
point this condition is calamitous. TIL
world at large and each neighborhood IN
particular has need OF its strong mel.
The successful man still fails to the eS-
tent that he neglects to make himself a
asset to his community. His own life is
poorer IL he has not been of service and
he cannot be of great service III he is not
constantly in tune with his less fortunate
neighbors.
Moreover, the unhappiness of isolation.
that horrible loneliness that makes itself
felt In the midst of crowds. Is his. He
longs in his hours of ease for the touch
of a sympathetic hand; in his work he
misses the spontaneous smile, and in .as
end he wonders whether 1t were worth
while to have made himself efficient, only
lost their sweetness because he is out OF
tune with Ids surroundings
Have a care as you carve your career
that you do not become the victim of
this species of self-ostracism. Keep IN
keen and sympathetic touch with those
ence less between the convoIutions OF
your own brain and those of the failure.
You are made of the same divine mud as
he. 1t is not enough to regard him
the possible victim of your charities.
Rather he is your brother, and has for
in return for little effort upon your part
at mutual understanding.
Take time to think of the other fellow
to be interested in him not collectively
nor abstractly, but personally. Mellow
your harsh ambitions with the tincture Of
his joys and woes. Keep close to him
close enough for a comfortable keen cleo
trio sympathy. Therein lies your saliva
ton. and possibly his.-(CopyriEht 1913
by the Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate)