Connecticut western news., 1913-12-11
WHY DON'T WET
This Lady Thinks We Eat Too Much and Learn Too Little.


 and Learn Too Little.
 Yes, why don't weg Lotanyone start talking apout the stuIy of civios and you will hear this or that one say: |" It would be good thing" or It's just what we want. both men aud women." The ignorance among us regarding even our town laws and our state legislature IS amazing. Men who are voters admit thls; then why don't we get rid of this ignorance? It seems to me mems ignor- ance Is inexcusable, but for that matter SO is womap's, no matter whether she ever votes in this state or not. The mems ignorance of what really goes on in our state legislatures was plainly evinced this fall when so mauy men voted for a higher salary for the repre- sentatives. How many of us have read Will Payne's Common Sense for State ?" He tells us that the first part of session held by the Legislative body is made up of talk with no progress to speak of in legislation. and that most bills are passed with scant consideration, because there is wild rush to get rid of them before adjournment, and he also tells us that so many blunders are com- mitted by legislatures on the merely verbal side of their work. and so much of it so wretchedly written that it is al- most impossible to tell what they mean, "Tons of literature" he further says, |" has been written about legislative in- competence" Now why do we have this incompetence? and why should incom- petenoe receive higher wage for it's in- competency?
 To come back to the oivics study ques- tion. Is life in our little town to be one amending round of food sales. church suppers, dances, with food after the dance, whist parties, with more food af- ter the whist ?-in short, is life to be- come one incessant feed7 Cannot we ever get filled up so that we may turn our attention from banquets and balls to the laws that make the moral, mental, spiritual and political life go on about us?
 After our winter of banqueting and succession one after another of feeds, what have we gaInedg Of course we have had good social time, and good social times are all right in their place, but should they fill the whole calendar of social events? The Choral Union is the one blessed oasis that stands out beautiful, uplifting and refreshing above this endless, not to say monotonous, well ter of food gatherings. Do we ever have the chance to get honestly hungry? Per sonally had mt been hungry, with real downright, needfuI hunger in so long that I had forgotten how real hunger felt till this summer. after a long illness, I suddenly longed for cold potatoi And ate it with a relish that surprised and amazed me.
 A man once said: "When you can eat a cold pancake with relish you are in a natural state of real healthy hunger"
 Alasl nm wandering from the civics class again. Why do we not start such a class? Maybe we could if we served delicious refreshments after studying the mint or the spells system for an hour or so. We'd be hungry by that time, of course. We are aware that economics, civil service reform, politics and sociolo- gy sound terribly uninteresting, like cold potato or cold pancake hunger, but these things are of real importance to the state, the town. the home, the fam. lily. It is pot essential that we men and women that go to make up n community should become trained politicians, but we ought to become better informed than we are on the principles of govern ment; and the laws under which we live can and should be better understood. If the study of civics should make us faint and hungry, why we can annex food sale (wirh dancing) after study hours. Why don't we? B. H.