El Imparcial. (San Juan, P.R.) 1918-197?, 1919-03-13
! OPINION AND
Z CONVICTION .


bench Immediately in front of
ours
wonder who writes these silly elitorias?-asked
the first man. showing to his friend the English page of
Ell IAPARCIAL.
aOh never mind. Pay no attention to him. he is
a d-fool.'
81 "Yes but I notice that you, too, always read that
stuff. Do you know this fellow?
"Why yes-answered the second liar. He is an
American of those hungry pennyali liners (gdccti
Heros) picked up somewhere by Ell IMPARCIAL l
only read him because he makes me laugh"
So did, in the heartiest manner we ever did, when
we heard him that We laughed loud that they both
turned their faces towards ours, but pretended to
be laughing at what were reading in the magazine
we had in hands Therefore the conversation kept
"I don't think they know at Ell IMPARCIAL what
this fellow writes about,-sa the first
eyes, they do and not only that, but they approve of
it-remarked the other fellow.
'Well, then, surprised that these radical views
and crazy things should be published by respectable
paper e" '
BY that time the car had reached the neighborhood
where the two presumably live, i'll Contado, and
they t off We fixed eyes we'll Oh both OF the we'll
dress snorants, and made our notatlons on the men
tai book for sundry accounts
Some weeks after that happened to meet the Sc
cond man. whose name does not matter just now. A
friend made the introduction, but when the unknown
stretched his hand out kept ours i'll our pocket and
simply said "Hola lque bag?
Presumably he passed unnoticed our action for i'm
1edatey he began to tell us how much he liked our ed
torials; he never failed to read them "Iut-he added
i understood YOU we're an Americal.'t II
'And so you are since the Bill Jones went into effect
Ms y5 answsped f,o,t,nant. 81 American from, tne
United States don't you know " II
=. Yess, WE Know Mr.. So an So and we also know
without ySn eyer having met US before you once
INDUCED in some vulgar criticism, whiclris mo creditat
Tito youL'f Aid right there we told him all about it.
sand repeated word By word the conversation he and bis
friend had in the trolley car. ~ = 1917 " "4 =
s of course The man lar could not find the proper words
I to apologize, but we helped him out and passed the
M whole incident joke for it it is really nothing else
) after all. Life itself seems to us big joke. ~,
Those two men, reader, are fair illustrations OF living
narrowmindness and prejudice and If this world we're
ruled by types Of men like those you might as well tell
good bye! to Liberty and Civilization The first man.
for instance would not tolerate anything said contrary
to his opinion and paper holding views opposite some
what to the views, or allowing in it's columns
anything unholy and unconventional (accordng to the
standard of that bigOt is not respectable at ALL no good
The other man. the fellow who wanted to shake hands
with us BEFORE apologizng for his grattuous insult
represents equally low and even perhaps lower type
ii human being: the hypocrlte.
But let us be ndugent and consider this man, the
second man, not hypocrite, but man without
convcons his kind ought to be despsed just like the
other two. In order to form correct Judgment about
ANYTHING down here the surface of the Earth it is
necessary to possess accurate inormaon it being only
the ignorant who act on prejudice, l. e., who Dase
their opinion what they imagine what they hear
from other people Once we possess the necessary IN
formation and we form our opinion we can not changed
it just as change shoes or our hat opinion our
way of thinking regarding any SUBJECT belongs TO our
moral being, reflects manly character, and con-
sequeny should be sacred to and not be altered ex
cept receipt and mature consideration of new infor
nation which beyond doubt prove our former views
to be Incorrect Men of true character very slow
and careful to form their opinion, and they have
it. although is not rgidy fixed as to be absolutely
interchangeable they think long and hard before any mo-
dfication of it is allowed.
Good many of us Porto Rcans don't take the trouble
to think with heads; we base opinion on
what they tell here and there and most of the times
when express ourselves about anything at ALL do
it without having first investigate it. Anything at all
is be instantly decided by u.s. from Statehood to the
cause of the bubonic plague, simply conversation
heard and not investigation made; and just like the
second man of our story, easily call honest
crook, we bet fifty cents the losing horse
the hinn6rome Smny hecause vel hoard it the