The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-07-12
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington, D. c.
KEEPCooL.


Washington, D. c., July 9.-Almost
the only warm blooded animal on the
face of the earth that has not sense
enough to keep out of the midsummer
sun is the American variety of that
strange creature ironically known to
science as homo sapiens.
The greater part of the United
States including most Of the Atlantic
coastal and central sections. is peculiar
in that it has a tropical climate for
two or three months during the year,
while the rest of the time the climate
varies from temperate to almost
arctic. There are few other parts OF
the world where summers are so hot
and winters SO cold as in the North At
lantic states.
Most persons who have never been
to tropical countries imagine that they
are great deal hotter in the summer
the United States. Nothing could be
more mistaken. It is a positive relief,
for example, to go from Washington to
Panama in July. 1t is hot at Panama,
/ but there are none of those times when
you could cook an egg ona stone in
| the sun, and when the night seems just
as hot as the day. In Panama cool
breeze usually comes in froEasthe ocean
at night, reducing the teAperature,
and there is apt to be a shower late in
the afternoon which has the same eff
feet.
But even more welcome than the
| slightly cooler climate which this
| equatorial country enjoys in COMPARE
! son with our capital is the difference
/ in customs which makes it so much
easier to weather the heat. In Pan
anna, as in almost all other tropical
countries, the custom of the midday
siesta is invariably observed. This
means that during two or three hours
of the hottest part of the day all ac-
tivities> are suspended. Everyone sleeps
/ or at least rests in the coolest and
shadiest place he can find. All thru
the day the sun is avoided as much as
possible. A tropical city during its
| hottest season does not awaken to
intense activity until after sunset.
This habit of the midday siesta has
| been ridiculed and criticised by Wis
itors from the United States ever since
they began going to the southern
countries. They regard it as proof
4 positive that the Latin-Americ is
1 lazy fellow As a matter OF fact, he
! is not lazy; he is merely sensible.
He has learned thru long years of
residence in the tropics that man
whose skin is white, or anywhere near
! white, cannot expose himself to sun
| light and live. Only a man with a
black or very dark skin can do 1t.
That is why practically all of the fielo
work in all of the tropical countries
is done by negroes. It is why Bar
| badian negroes were the men who
dug the Panama canal.
The reason a white man, or an ap-
| proximately white man, cannot stand
the tropical sun is a matter for some
speculation. Some scientists believe
it is due largely to the presence in the
sunlight of the ultra-Violent or actinic
ray. while others believe that this has
little to do with it. and that the heat
itself does the damage. But they are
III oil fa
literally death to white men. They
can survive in the tropics only by
keeping out of the sun and the heat
as much as possible. This has been
lproved in every tropical country where
white men have gone.
Tropical Summer Here.
The important point for US to note
in this connection is that in the
greater part of the United States for
| the greater part of the summer we have
just about as tropical climate as any
equatorial country Both the actinic
ray and intense heat are present.
| And yet It is our general practice to
work in that heat just as hard as we
work in the winter. Most of us take
a little vacation, of course, and a
few fortunate ones escape to the
mountains or seashore for all or the
greater part of this hot spell. But
most of US work and sWelter on, los
ing weight, losing our tempers, oeca-
sionally even losing our lives.
Heat and Hard Work.
The Latin-American in a tropical
| country has learned to take his siesta
and to reduce his exposure to the sun
in every way possible, because he has
this hot summer all the year around.
and he would not survive If he did not
take these precautions. But the native
of the United States has to contend
with a tropical climate only three
months in\t the year, and his habits are
formed in the other nine months.
Furthermore, he is the slave of an
ideal of hard work. In this country
we believe that If a man will only
work hard enough he can acoomp-
lish anything, and that to be deliber-
1 ately idle any considerable, part of
the time Is little short of criminal.
Both of these articles of the national
creed would perhaps stand a little
revision. AS a matter of fact, what
a man can accomplish depends a
great deal more on the endowment
, nature gave him than on the number
of hours he works per day. Some of
the greatest achievements have been
by men who worked only>a few hours
a day. Also the leisure to reflect,
read, and-obseFve, is just as neces-
sary strenuous effort to any worth
while development.
But the fact remains that we are q
/, nation of drudges. There are few OF
US who can loaf during what is COM
monty considered q working hour
without feeling guilty.
, Now this strenuous activity, what
ever its philosophical value. is at least
/ compatible with health on a brisk fall
day or a mild spring one. but on a
} broiling summer day it Is enormously
wasteful of human energy and even
human life. In this country practical
iy nof activity is suspended on account
! of the heat. The midday rest, which
has been found so necessary to this
endurance of iAtense heat everywhere
in the tropics, is unheard of in this
! country.
Hot Spells Deadly.
Just consider, for a moment tbs
spectacle of a typical American city
I during a heat wave-New York fol
: example All activities go on Just a.
usual: the streets are scarcely les:
crowded than at any other time. Ev.
cry days paper reports a few death: