The Evening Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1917-1920, 1918-06-13

Independent The Quill

helplessly: What do you want me ,
/ write about?"
J / count ten before l answer. The
: in as calm tone and polite a manne
as l can at the moment assume, sa
that since they are more conversar
: with the latest advances in their re
spective fields than 1 could be pei
haps they might suggest some topic!
dozen or so, that might be worke
up into a good news story
What Shall Write About2
What do they take an editor 70
anyway? If l knew what they know
l should not ask them to write.
should do it myself. Do they thinl
that our correspondent somewhere il
France cables to us: Come over ant
tell me what there is here to writ,
about?" Do they think that oul
musical critic drops in to ask: "Hav,
l heard any new composers recentl,
whom you think l ought to write
about and if so what should l say
about them?" Did Columbus go tC
King Ferdinand and inquire: "Has
Your Masjesty anything in the sea.
faring line that you would like to
have me do?"
When l was a chicken | had to
scratch gravel for my grub. Wyoming
was not the best place in the world
for one of afflicted with the coethes
scribendi. The library contained about
three thousand volumes largely Pub.
Docs. But late in the afternoon after
had run off the last of my analyses
and dismissed the lingerers from the
laboratory, / used to lock my base
ment door and slip upstairs to the
library to see what l could find to
write about. could always find some
thing. Once l thought 1 would have
to give it up. l looked over the latest
periodicals, which were put on the
radiator for convenience, and the only
new thing l could find was a copy of
a government meteorological monthly,
mostly tables, but in one corner
discovered an item about a new record
of a ballon-sonde. With that as
clew l wrote eight hundred words
on "The Exploration of the Upper
Atmosphere" for which The Indepen-
dent sent me eight dollars and it was
welcome in those days
One day l saw in the paper that a
Nobel Urize had been awarded to
SullXr had never heard
of the gentleman and ransacked the
library with little success. Two in
cidental references were all I could
unearth but by raiding the French
classroom in the absence of the pro-
fessor l got a little book on French
verse by Arthur Garfield with one or
two of his poems. This gave me
material enough for a four page ar
ticle on "The Poet of Science" and it
was not so bad as you would think
That was twenty years ago, but pro-
fessor of French literature whom /
met the other day complimented me
on it.
Why an Editor Loses His Temper.
These personal "reminiscences are
merely introduced to explain why I
lose my temper when somebody within
five cents of two of the largest
Libraries in the country tells me he
cannot find anything to write about.
l feel like saying to him as was said
to the sailors on the ship in the mouth
of the Amazon who signaled to a pass
ing vessel for fresh water: Scoop
it up. 1t is all around you" / would
remind him of Chesterton's remark:
There are no uninteresting subjects
there are only uninterested persons"
Which side of the barricade am on
does not matter to anybody. What
does matter is that the barricade is
there. With more science taught than
ever before, with science making more
spectacular progress than ever before,
with science coming more closely in
touch with daily life than ever before,
there is, veritably believe, less in
terest taken in it by the intelligent
cultured layman than there used to |
be. Science has won, its way into |
the schools. 1t has yet to win its way |
into the hearts Of the people. 1t is not |
to science that closer
with it should lead to |
dislike of it. There is for one thing
an active and organized opposition to
he propaganda of science, which has
been intensified by the reactionary
spirit always engendered by war. All
he crimes of Germany are charged
o her scientific training. This is
ather amusing in view of the criticism
If German schools by German scien-
lists for being too classical. See, for
Instance, Ostwald's Ueber die Schule-
end OF What's the matter with our
chools?" In England the headmast-
rs are urging that the study Of the
lassic is the best way to support the
for they prove the inevitable
allure of democracy. In this country
he mere proposal to found modern
chool to see If there cannot be found
ONE other way of attaining the cul-
ural aims of classical education
rings a mass meeting at Princeton