The Washington times., 1918-08-31
The philosophers, political economists,


s We are like a swarm of human beings cast away on
some desert island This earth island little island
in space and it is desert island and badly arranged
iSland in ways than Many Of US lack good
dwellings,, some of lack food all of worried
about the future The island is infested with mosquitoes
and with disease that we have not learned to conquer
There many criminals it that prey upon the honest
people criminals at the top and criminals at the bottom
Of society
And all of those who think and sympathize with their
feIlowcreatures are busy with the problem of putting
things right on this little desert island that carries US
along In the wake of the SUM-
Most of US imagine that the most important work for
men the organization of life this little planet There
is very small and mean idea of mans real destiny.
When starts to build house, of course, the plan
ming of sanitary arrangements must first be attended to-
After that begin the real life and the real interests That
real life and those real interests not confined to the
front yard the back yard of the that owns the
house.
E So it will be some day with who are now engaged
in the detailed organization of the little home which we
call the earth We fixing up our moral plumbing
fighting poverty injustice and, above ALL ignorance We
are fighting the that OF competition and
the greater meanness that based upon the dread of pow
erty the future Some OF plng up millions that
use while others suffer for lack OF that which
could be abundantly supplied
All these little earthly questions that seem so big VIII
be settled in time
But few years in the sight of Time-a few hundred
centuries perhaps, as count tme-and our earthly
habtation will have been made fit to live In. We shall
have eliminated the unft-not by killing them off, but by
educating them We shall have solved the question OF pGy
erty by solving the question of production and especially
of distribution We shall have developed ctlzensp Ca
pabe of work. of sobrety and OF moral decency
without the spur OF want imprisonment or the scanoo as
necessary adjuncts.
In time the human race will have solved its little prob
lens here-the problems that seem so vast today.
When that time comes shall be like the man who
has put his house in order and thoughts will not be
confined to this little piece OF ground Then we SNAIL ap
precate the cosmic wisdom which has divided our days
into darkness and gh-the light for the enjoyment OF the
material nT BEAUTIES %n N our FMYM%T saTty OF The VAST
MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE SPREAD OUT AROUND US
Everybody knows that the aged require less sleep than
the Young In the future this will make old age what 1t
ought to be- blessing because will give to the old more
hours of the night for contemplation OF the lnnnte ana
all its wonders
Those of us who now think themselves very abstract
when they speculate on North Pole when they dis
cuss the possibility of reclamng the Desert Of Sahara
will have their minds many millions Of miles away from
this earth great deal of the time.
We shall communicate perhaps with sister planet,
Venus-the planet most like in physical arrange
ment We shall be intensely interested In that world,
where it is always night side OF the planet and al
ways day on the other
We shall realize with deepest envy the fact that the
constant terrific currents of air whrling around Venus
in consequence of the extreme heat and the extreme cold
on opposite sides of the planet having developed race
as far superior to the trout In the sW1tfoWng
brook superior to the heavyeyed catfish In the bottom OF
the pond.
We shall humbly beg for information from the su-
peror inhabitants of other worlds and perhaps wait with
mpaience for release from duty here which shall take
us to higher planetary existence If look backward
at all we Shall consider present selves simply
fined cannibals who lived upon the labor and the suffer
ing of fellows instead of feeding upon their bodies
1t may seem ridiculous predict that the time will
come when the intelligent mans interests will be nearly
all outside of the earth on which he lives.
But to the savage the Congo, squatted beside a
decaying hppopotamus gorgng himself with the meat with
thought beyond that beyond the edge OF
that river, would preposterous to speak OF men
whose interests range out over the entire world
s- We look upon very small today unless all
knowledge interests him. unless his mind daily all
over the civilized globe sharing in the interests Of all
tons in the literature the discoveries and the activities Of
all nations
Today we, with minds on little material prob
lens our thoughts conferred this little planet we
acnreru.d IN Lest coHrrrrN