Smyrna times., 1916-12-20
HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE
ON DR.. CAIRNS LECTURE
MISS EDNA H. WOOOKEEPER
GIVES VIEWS ON THE SUBJECT
DR.. Cairns Talked on "Humbugs and
Mossbacks" at the Second Number
of High ScooI Star Course

Mossbacks" at the Second Number
of High ScooI Star Course
The promoters of the Star Course
in series of entertainments under
auspices of Smyrna High School. were
very fortunate in securing Doctor T.
Alexander Cairns for a lecture which
was delivered on Friday evening. He
delivered the lecture with the wit
natural to the Irish, which kept one
in good humor from the beginning t."
the end. He dealt with the great
questions of the day including the
Social Problem, Government Owner
ship of Public Utilities, Woman
Suffrage, Modern Warfare and the
Temperance Question with great skill.
According to Doctor Cairns, moss
back is a person who thinks as his
father thought, his father thought as
his grandfather, his grandfather as his
great grandfather and his great grand
father did not think at all. A hum.
bug is person who hogs everything
he can get into his possession.
All the lean politicians went to
their doom because they said, mo-,
to democracy. They are like a law
which says when two trains meet at a
crossing they must both stop and
neither one go on until the other has
crossed the tracks.
For an example of the social prob
lem he took the city of New York.
The pauper population increases seven
times as fast as the whole population.
Ninety-seven out of every hundred
people do not own their own homes.
People say men do not want work but
they do. They are forced to work or
steal for the maintenance of their
families. They are locked from work
and il they steal they are imprisoned.
There are always people who object
to such things as government owner
ship of public utilities. Some say,
Burst the trusts!'' The Standard
Oil Trust was dissolved and gasoline
jumped from nine to twenty-five cents
a gallon. Then fellow with another
remedy comes along and SAYS "Regu-
late the TrustsP' The beef trusts
in Chicago were regulated. They
were fined sixty thousand dollars for
the condition of some of their meats
and they raised the price enough to
regain the sixty thousand before
night. Why not let the government
own the bublic utilitiesf 1t was
said by someone that the Philadelphia
Trolley System failed under public
ownership but why? There were two
or three men who saw it should fail.
so they could get the ownership of it.
A great deal of the graft of to-day
comes from private ownership of pub
lie utilities.
In reference to the equal franchise
of all United States citizens he said.
why can't both ends of the house 90
to the ballot box? Even if the wo-
man should sell her vote for a box of
talcum powder it is no worse than a
man to sell his vote FIR beer check.
Every saloon keeper and sneak thief
can vote but the college woman can
not. The women have no more voice
IN many things concerning them, than
the Japanese girl in her marriage.
We tell the woman tn watch the
child. yet she has no say about the
sweat shops and mines in which the
child must go. The ballot box is the
only way she can help these. "'The
humbugs and mossbaeks," said Doc
tor Cairns object to woman suffrage.
If every body had a chance of
voting for or against war and all
those who voted for war had to 90
first, there would be no more war
The whole cause of the present great
war was jealousy.
The saloons occupy the same posi-
tion in the United States that bull
does in a china shop. We speak about
the waste of our land. The greatest
waste is that of from one to three
thousand boys who each year go in the
gin mil and come out drunkards, they
end in the potter's field. The liquor
people say they pay their license anC
the town needs the money but where
do they get the money? 1t comes
from the people. They talk about
personal liberty they mean persona
anarchy only they have the word.
twisted. The saloons are incoherent
with our modern American ideals.
Many said this was the best lecture
delivered in Smyrna for some time.
1t was both instructive and entertain.
ing.