The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-05-28
As They Like Everything Else
in World Are Constantly
Wearing Out.


WASHINGTON. May 27.-when
Woodrow Wilson was president of
princeton man asked him: Man,
why don't YOU leave something alone
and let 1t stay the way 1t is?" The
president OF Princeton was always try
ing to do something and he answered
II you Will guarantee 10 me that it
VIII stay the way il is, | will let il
alone; but If you knew anything, YOU
would know that If you leave a live
thing alone 1t will not stay where ii
IS. 1t Will develop and rather 90 in
the wrong direction or decay" The
president of Princeton then reminded
MS interrogator OF what the English
man writer said: "If you want to keep
white post white you cannot let it
alone. 1t will get black. You have to
keep doing something to it. You have
got 10 Keep painting 1t white, and you
have got TO paint 1t white very fire.
quently in order TO keep il white. be-
cause there are forces at work that
VIII get the better OF you Not only
VIII 1t turn black, but the forces OF
moisture and other forces of nature
VIII penetrate the white paint and get
at the fibre Of the wood and decay will
set in and the next time you try to
paint il you will find that there is
nothing but punk to paint"
There never was n truer thing said
by anybody than that and 1t was said
to the National Press Club in Wash
ington by the former president of
Princeton, now president Of the United
States, to impress the men Of the no.
BILE craft Of journalism with the neces-
sity Of keeping abreast, II not a little
ahead. OF the constructive thought of
the day IS that what there Is left of
great iniative and saving grace may
be turned to good account. II the
president had been making speech TO
the road-builders of the country upon
their opportunity and obligation to the
public he could not have hit the nail
more squarely on the head. The up
keep of the public highways is second
only to their construction; indeed, II
would be useless waste of the pub
lie money to build good roads without
making
AuPVulIP ITONlStOn
for their maintenance. White posts
get black unless they are frequently
painted white; good roads get bad
unless they are constantly repaired.
1t is the same way with wagons and
automobiles and clothes. Horses have
to be re-shod. harness has to be patch
ed, tires have TO be renewed. and it
costs almost as much to keep a house
in good livable condition as II does to
pay rent when the landlord makes the
repairs Nothing lasts in this world;
nothing but the bones abide after the
blood and life are gone. There is
down in the National Museum in
Washington the skeleton of sea rep
tile which was dug up down at
Coca, Alabama, about the time the
Cosca river. which Senator Bankhcad
told the Rivers and Harbors Congress
is one Of the oldest rivers in this coun-
try-was digging its channel to the
sea. The people who lived and voted
In Alabama at that remote period and
their commerce and their highways
have all persisted and only the bones
from this river of doubt remain, just
as in the ancient Roman Empire only
here and there are TO be found today
the broken and worn out highways
over which the lcgions Of Caesar
marched in their conquest of the
world The cities have persisted, the
commerce has departed, the fields are
forsaken and only the written story of
the glory of the brave days OF old re-
4. -.