The Washington times., 1919-06-05
Keeping Out of the Scrap Heap
You Can Postpone Going There If You Will Make the
Best Use of What You Have.


You read in the news that twelve great baleships to
be sapped Some will be broken up and sold for old metal
Some win used targets for naval gunners shoot at
The sum total of all is that their usefulness battle
ships They have served their purpose They are
done with.
You must be very young not to remember when those
came ships the pride of the navy and the source Of
worry foreign nations of whom thought their build
ing menace
They cost when built more than ninety million dollars.
Their average age perhaps twenty years That that
they deteosted the rate of than four million dollars
a year.
steel that made their hu and guns not in the brass and
copper that went their construction They worthless
because being nanmat braess things they could not keep
up with the worlds progress.
The same men that designed these discarded ships and
their designing the great vessels which will
take their places It their brains that built then con-
demned then built again.
What the ships lacked the men had. BRAINS INTEL
LIGEECE, IMAGINATION, REASONING POWER.
If the men had lacked minds they would have been
strapped long ago.
The body grows old The spirit stays young
Flesh withers. Wrinkles come. Hair turns gray. But
the mind far ouves the house in which dWeS Stored
with the wisdom which has accumulated it works
after the legs that carry totterng and the hand that
does its bidding grows unsteady
But this only of well kept wen nouished minds
You can starve your mind as well your body.
You feed it not at all you feed useless food
you do either of these things you will get the natural
and the inevitable result Your mind will show the lack of
nourshmen just your body would show it It will not
grow Il win not strength It will not show power and
the results Of power.
Feed your mind good food good books, good lectures
good information wherever you get it.
Exercise your mind THINK.
Never gain bit of information, matter how unim
portant, without thinking about it.
Newton saw apple fall from tree Very unmportant
to most But out Of that falling apple he developed the
theory and law Of gavtatiOn the greatest discovery Of
IIo~-s ~.o1I&Ia hsg&0r yOf+ aoS
Watts held teaspoon against the spout of kettle Of
boiling water noticed that the spoon forced away
the pressure of the steam. Very unimpotant he had not
thought about it. Thinking about it made the steam engine
possible
Calico observed the results of combining lenses BE
could not sleep because he could not stop thinking of what
might result from arranging two bits of glass that they
would bring far objects into nearer vision
As result of that night of seeplssness he built the first
telescope instrument about powerful modern opera
glass but the beginning of heavenly journeys which tell
something httleOf the universe of which we are
part
Thinking besides its results in great discoveries and
great inventions has always bettered the who did the
thinking.
You know without being told that if you sat for a
month with your foot up in chair moving it, when
you tried to step you would fall
You know that however strong you are, you carried
your arm in a sling for year it would be useless
Your mind needs exercise Just do your legs and arms
and thinking is exercise
If the battleships which are about be destroyed had
had minds and exercised them, they had devoted mental
energy improvement and progress they would be
going to the scrap heap.
Be sure that you, who have minds, and exercise
them
Think about useful things. Study how to be more
efficient valuable to yourself profitable your
employer, worth while to your neighbor bene-
fetal to the world.
Do not be discouraged because you accomplish
great things The Wright brothers, if they had tried to fly
the Atlantic would have failed They satisfied
fly hundred feet But their flying that hundred feet
made the fight from America to England possible.
"An I require of myself isl said Seneca the
great Roman philosopher mot to be equal to the best but
only to be better than the bad
Every time you accomplish something you raise your
standard Of effort Physically you cannot lift yourself by