The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-09-20
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY <. HOUSE.
(From Philadelphia Public Ledger.l-

An item of $10.s5 in the Filming
Souire's' remittance to his old home
town puzzles the orters. We sub
NIT our version of the mystery The
ssFfnfng SQUIRE assessed himself $40
and costs for kissing his wife good-by
the night he left England.
Reviewing the preceding paragraph
fore and aft, we perceive IL is endowed
with neither wit nor humor and car
ries less wallop than feather buster.
But wen let it ride. A column hound
must start somewhere.
The story of the "jazzed" Penn
State bank teens with references to
one Colflesh. a $25-a-week clerk. who
despite his financial limitations, paid
assiduous court TO the flesh pots.
There is, 1t seems to US, a kernel OF
thought in the Colflesh episode. only
those who direct our financial institu-
tions commit the folly of presumins a
man capable of resisting temptation
on a salary of SIS week.
Obviously, aItho the net has been
drawn closer and the meshes made
smaller in recent year, depositors need
further protection against specializing
bank employees. We take the liberty
of suggesting that no bank clerk be
employed at a salary of s25 a week
or less until he can establish the fact
that he has an Independent income
from other sources.
"Foolish prattle,' you say. OF
course it it. But no more foolish than
the presumption that a man can sup
port family and maintain such posi-
ton as is demanded of a clerical
worker on $25 aNweek
Belonging. as we do. TO the tempes-
tuous or hard-riCinG school of jour-
nalism. we ave great admiration for
the writing gentleman who can ap-
proach a problem perfectly poised.
calmly, serenely md without heat
One such labors in the editorial rooms
of the Chicago Tribune. and we wish
to do him such honor as notice herein
carries with it.
The Chicago writer in discussin
Chicago's race war says: ut is be-
coming more and more evident that
white and colored people are not liv-
ing in harmony in Chicago" There.
we contend. is dispassionate statement
linked to truth and FEASIBILITY by soft
words.
Wen say 1t is; we'll say it is.
Touching and appertaining to the
fact that the best-known motor car is
to be equipped with a self starter we
offer further suggestion as to its i'm
provement. 1t is that the best known
motor car be equipped with a Maxim
silencer.
We submitted the foregoing para
graph to an editorial colleague. He
joins us in the opinion that a new
Ford joke has been coined.
A reader writes in to impart the in
formation that he has a penchant for
reading between the lines Such a
penchant, properly exercised. in time
becomes a gift. Between the lines is
| IF hA
Dr.. Frank Crane. who confesses he
is tired of being an upright ape, is
pretty lucky at that Most of his kind
spend so much of their lives in crawl
ing" that they never get the hump"
out OF their shoulders.
The column continues to view the
Shantung matter with comparative
equanimity. Since 9ne of the preda-
tory nations would have controlled
Shantung in any event. 1t makes lit'ie
difference which predatory nation
ii is.
China is in much the same proud
position as that once occupied by the
American Indian. When white men
got together to talk over the prob
lens of the Indian the Indian always
lost little more OF his land.
"Under woman suffrage" we quote
from the New York American, office
holding enters a new era of candor
and accountab ility." We express the
hope that 1t will turn out in just that
way. But observations taken in the
suffrage belt lead to the conclusion
that under woman suffrage office
holding enters a new era of cant,
hypocrisy and sophistry.
In the suffrage belt office seekers
predicate their appeal to the woman
vote on its emotionalism, which is its
weakest point. 1t is unlikely that
those who play the game in the more
eongested regions will approach it
with less shrewdness or more zeal for
sincerity.
We have no wish to deprive woman
of the boon of ballot-casting. We
merely deem 1t our duty as chronicIer
and commentator to point out the fact
that equal suffrage and the millen-
MUM will not arrive coincidentally.
Colonel Watterson makes the point
that Grover Cleveland was a changed
man after his marriage. The conclu-
zion Is plausible enough. The bachelor
of mature years succumbs more COM
pletely to marriage than the youth of
twenty-three.
In time the public mind grasps all
Of the essential facts. The knowledge
that Pomerene is the senior senator
from Ohio. and not a tropical fruit,
finally has become widespread
| HEART AND BEAUTY
| PROBLEMS