The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-02-13
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Tennyson took flower and flung it at the feet of the scientists and told them if they would tell him what it was, root and all he would explain the riddle Of the universe. but they never picked it up, and it still lies on the ground, send ing forth it's heavenly sweetness in spite of those who, falling to catch the breath of heaven. spend their days in the low lands of materialism.
 It may seem far cry from flowers to stick of shaving soap and yet per fume goes into it's making. No one knows just how the human mind works, or has fathomed the inter-relations in the economic world. I got started on this story because druggist charged me 5 cents instead of 25 cents for my fla yorite father.
 I freely admit that since the war be- gan, under the pressure of my good friends, Crawford Johnson and Joe Love- man, am beginning to be disciple of theirs and taken to saving in deadly ear nest, and just because I felt that was held up forf 10 cents I am going to re- lieve my feelings in this way:
 Why make a row over dime, you ask? My dear reader, know you not that some of the greatest businesses in the world were built on half-dimes. To put it in a more concrete way. If Crawford John son had not built up fortune on nickel drink, do you imagine for one moment that he could have said good by to his plant to go up and down the state urging economy, even if the people had to go thirsty for soft drings?
 Some people can see dime a far ways of recall the story that "Andy" Car negie, at meeting when he was going to hand out s1,O0O000 for a library drop ped a nickel beneath the table. His guests saw him get down and get under, and to their surprise when he came up for air proudly held up in his hands a 10-cent piece. This may be pure in vention but it sheds world of light on the canny Scots ability to accumulate.
 The sad part about trying to catch the soap gamblers in their shell game is just when you think you have located the pea Cor person. and, lift the cover, you find it gone, and that he has made a quick getaway. It beats the game of thimble, which played in my childhood, all hollow Time and again, I thought T. 11 T
 which got my dime, but when I took hold of the retailers he opened 1t and said: "I haven't got it see the jobber." I ac- cused MT. Jobber man and he held his open palms heavenward and swore he was guiltless but advised me to tackle the manufacturer.
 I got on his trail, and after hearing his tale as, to how completely he was at the mercy of the packers, I felt sorry and
 apologized for even suspecting him. I then boldly rapped at the doors of the
 big butchers, and they timidly said: Come in,' for they suspected me of be- ing one of the governments investiga- tors. When they learned I was only a newspaper man a smile lit their faces,
 and they began to relate how they were at the mercy of the rapacious cattle rais- ers caught a train for the country and berated the farmers for being so grasp 1 ing, but they came back with figures as l to how the railroads gouged them for ] transportation and the high price of food stuffs until they made me think they were much malgned and long suffering citizens.
 1 I then sought out a chemist friend, and I F told him of my weary search and begged him to give me some reason fol the need of paying s5 cents for stick ol shaving soap as big as my thumb ] sat and listened for an hour as he wen l into the chemistry Of the soap business until finally I had to stop him in his glowing periods in which he was care lessly using such words as ssodiun l stearates. and potassium oleates'' jus l finland when I was quarter of milt I from a dictionary and had left behint me 25 years ago all that I had evel | days
 It always has fascinated me to hea some of my learned preacher friend skin out theological terms as mere ordi nary conversation, or to wander into 1 courtroom and listen to trained law yer dish out technical legal terms a though he thought in them, or to over hear a session of medical society il l which doctors, banded the nomenclatur I which was meant to camouflage thei patients and make them think they reall. had some serious disease.
 \ Finally, I said to my chemist friend , Quit soft-soaping me with your hon
 eyed scientific jargon, and tell me il f plain newspaper English (not the kim i, that goes under the name of baseball r dope, but the variety which illuminates i, for instance. the column I write>, wha
 lis soap? He got me. and the dream : look faded out of his eyes as he cam I down to earth and said: Well. to mak
 lit so simple that even you can under 5, stand it (note the sarcasml. soaps em pi brace all these compounds HsAch resul ei from the reaction of salifiabNbases wit p fats and oils.
 For fear that he had not made it quit
 simple enough for me to take it in, h
 added so that I might not go away unir