Newark post., 1919-11-12
ENTHUSIASM A MOTIVE
FORCE WHICH MAKES
THE WORLD BETTER
Every Sort of Business De-
mands Leader Who Really
Cares About 1t

EADoul IL
The tery word enthusiasm" is
likely to suggest precipitate action, on
an impulse, Needless of the conse-
ouences. 1t conveys also the idea OF
the profuse expression of an exagger-
ated sentiment 1t hints at exuberant
language which in the cold blood of
the next days retrospect would seem
as if it should have been tanned and
tempered. We fear the "enthusiast'
as one who starts something he cannot
finish or never means to finish. He is
an Impractical dreamer, spiritual
though not a spirituous inebriate. He
deals in rainbow fancy, roseate pro-
rhecy and spectacular promise. His
reacn exceeds his grasp, as the poet
hath it. We invite him to hold his
horses. or to come down to earth; we
strive 10 stife his smoldering fire with
wet blanket; we beg of him to mod
crate the transports of his music to
the monotone of the roaring town;
and some of us, more frank, inform
him he's fool.
Yet enthusiasm, if it does not begin
and end in mere ecstasies, is motive
force that has made lives great and
the earth better, and nearly every sort
of business that the world wants done
dema:c: one who really cares lot
aho,,t it to start it and keep it going.
One would rather have a Macedonian,
with no language but cry, than
Lacedaemonian, neither cold nor hot,
for the Macedonian, at any rate, want
ed something and made known the
want. There are always plenty OF
people who will vote in favor of doing
nothing, for fear of making a mis-
take. In their anxiety to be errorless
they make nothing at all. They are
like ballplayers who never, go after
the bail lest they might miss it. They
da nothing because they may sose
something.
The world depends on the enthus-
iasts-the sane, clear-eyed and ration
al ones-to get it's work done. 1t
laughs at the initiator; it points out
that he is on the wrong track; it pulls
down the books and cites he prece-
dents against him. After it has prov
ed to its complete satisfaction that
what he proposes is impossible, he
bo ,,,or1l ,,rospnf nf tho I'm.
ished product. Whereupon the skep
tics announce that it was their owl
idea. and the credit is all theirs, ant
they try to push the worthy one aside
into an ignominious obscurity. Blu
he was not working for the credit, ant
he did not bother his head about th'
cash returns. He was dominated b.
the driving force of great purpose
beyond himself and beyond the world
eve. He labcred that he might brins
his dream true, and he had to b
faithful tc a trust
Those who have influenced thei
time and subsequent times never loaf
ed easily through the perfunctor
motions of the days routine; the
never evaded hard things, sharp COZ
ners and strange problems; but the
met and strangled lions in the wa!
They believed with all their migf
when they believed; and they did nc
stand debating when action was in
perative Nor did they emphasize tn
grief and gloom of life; nor did the
pull long faces and sigh for asphod
meadows in the hereafter ere they ha
done their duty by the fiinty roae
that on this earth we must trea
They would not let the fret and tt
attrition that each day inevitab
brings wear down the spirit and sui
due The cheerfulness which is as mut
a Part of duty as it is to be truthft
or kird, or to vote for decent men ar
women in a public office.-Philade
phia Ledger.