Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-04-02

as we'll as to silence the clacking
of the pessimistic and disloyal.'
l did not write the article, how
ever, for when l started to invest-
gate the question l discovered that
an association of the sort with much
the same aims in view was already
organized by Judge Wadhams, OF
New York. 1t has since been estao-
lished under the name, American
Families" ,
Now, the curious thing to my mind
is that three people, none of whom
/ am positively certain had any
knowledge of each other, and all OF
whom / am equally certain are I'M
known to Judge Wadhams, should
have hit upon the same idea ut prac-
tically the same time, each regard
ing it as his or her own original con-
ception.
There is only one explanation
it must have been in the air. That
is, a conjunction of circumstances
served to bring the want or need of
such a society to several different
minds, and so acted in each case as
suggestion.
I merely cite this incident be-
cause it is q recent example which
happened to fall under my own no.
tice; but there are many famous M
stances of ideas being lin the air
in solution, as it were, cloudy ana
inchoate-grasped at by many minds.
and then suddenly crystallizing and
taking form in the brain of one
man.
Scarcely a great modern inven-
ton whose history does not carry
out the analogy. The telephone, the
submarine, the wireless, the air.
plane; with each of them there was
race for the Patent Office between
rival inventors, with the man 10
whom the credit goes winning out
sometimes only by a nose.
lust before the sinking of the IT,
tanic, some years ago, and Tor no
accountable reason, the magazines
were deluged with d perfect flood or
shipwreck stories, and one man fore
shadowed the coming catastrophe al
most to it's minutest detail 1t was
in the air.
Again, it happens every season
that there is a prevailing mode not
only in clothes, but also in books
and plays and forms of diversion,
in everything. The dressmakers and
designers, and authors and publish
ers and managers adopt the most Ella
borate precautions to keep their
plans and purposes secret, but all in
vain.
There is never novelty that is
not almost simultaneously dupli-
Gated, often to such an extent that
the spread of it is like an epidemic.
Charges of plagiarism and treach-
cry are freely voiced: but the truth
is that the little whispering birds
simply get the news out of the air
and tell it to any one who will lis
ten.
The styles and fashions are not,
as most people imagine, established
and originated by some central San
hedrim of authority. Where they
come from no man knows, nor the
season why of them.
May it not be, then, that they are,
in fact, the thoughts, the wishes,
| the aspirations, the longings, the
views of many minds rising in con-
sensus like an invisible Vapor TO
coalesce in the more rarened atmos-
phere above, and descend again in
tangible and definite form.
And if that were true, imagine
what it would mean if all this un-
directed force could be guided and
controlled as has been done with
the vapor or steam.
Suppose, for instance, that on a
given day at IL o'clock noon, every
person in the United States should
for five minutes concentrate their
thoughts upon the one word "Vic-
tory" What do you imagine would
be the result? / wonder If Hinden-
burg's boasted defenses wouldn't
crumple up as did the walls of Jeri-
cho.