Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-06-18
RAINBOW CHASING NOW
THE UNIVERSAL CRAZE
Because Everybody Is Doing II, Mr.
Patten Has Wearied Of
Very Llkable World

Patten Has Wearied Of
Very llkable World
liver since men developed a con-
IL science they have known the mood
in which the world seems merely good
place to get out Of.
Pundits of an ancient time found life
bcarablc only when they withdrew from
the human procession to mediate under
wayside trees. The case of j. A. Pat
ten, an Illinois millionaire. who sud-
denly cut loose from affairs and went
into seClusion because he was tired of
the world. tired OF its ceasclcss strife
and discomfort" is no new thing in
history. Ty Cobb when he misses one
in crucial inning. unquestionably
yearns for an interval on n happier
sphere. But Mr.. Cobb and Mr.. Patten
and all the others who let evaporation
ovcrwhelm them cannot but be regarded
as amateurs at the business of life.
II. in the ordinary course of exist
pnce. a man turns to slam a door be-
tween himself and the active world.
what words are adequate to tell OF the
feeling that must have come to those
who had to lie for four years in
trenches where tempcsts of fire blew
night and day?
What Of the men who burn them
selves out in efforts to befriond nations
and races that in the end jecr and re-
ject them?
And what Of the poor Of Europe who
have to begin life all over again in the
Io,o1ot,nn 10
These are difficult times. certainly.
for minds that can travel by the light
of logic alone. Man has made many
inventions and endured torment indie
scribable in the misguided effort to find
substitutes for simple truth. honor and
peace Of hcart-things that arc his at
the beginning and until he throws them
away.
Empires have blazcd and fallen in
that odd quest. From the look of things
they may blaze and fall again. Mr..
Patten is one Of great many people
who have viewed the signs of the times
with something like despair. Undouht-
edly he has been reading the political
speeches of recent weeks and the for
mulas by William Jennings Bryan for
the worlds salvation. But bricklayprs
who demand and receive SlS day
and ashmen who will not work for less
than $40 were for him the last. un-
bcarable Straws.
Against them he rebcllrd with the
standing on its head
Fifteen dollar a day bricklaycrs are.
in their way, quaint They are a
chcerlpss sort Of phenomenon. But on
the whole they are not half so danger
ous or undesirable as some of the ex
ated folk who sit in high places and
draw about $15 n minute for fumbling
disast-ously with the mechanisms of
government.
In Europe especially there are states
men who have been setting a bad Px-
ample for everybody as tho leaders in
q rainbow chase that has grown to the
Of an international and
craze.
Tf they have not learned the lessons
of the war, how can bricklayers he ex-
pected to know these same lessons?
There are times when it seems that
the war had an opposite result to the
one intended. Once unon a time kings
were few and relatively powerlcss.
Now everybody. big and little. seems
to 20 into the King business
in one way or another.
A raisin king is rising 10 glory in
Pittsburgh to Join the dried ample kings
H. H. IL. I
the wheat kings. II bricklayers and
ashmen are in the imperial mood. if
they feel that they are qualified to con-
quer and grab. il can he said for them
that they are following an example
offered conspcuously in some of the
high places of the earth.
Despite all this. the world of which
Mr.. Pattpn has wraried has much to
recommend il AZ place of residence.
II it has party platforms and the
speeches Of Mr.. Bryan and politicians
in the places where statesmen ought to
be, it has also the knowledge and assur-
ance Of great deeds and great purposes
that stand like towers of light above
a mean SCufie. 1t has. and always will
have, men whose very presence is
against all wrong. These are
the constant and perpetual things which
actually direct the course of civilization.
If the world has produced Bryans.
Borahs, Curzons and Clemenceaus, it
las also produced Lincolns and Shake
pcarps and BCethovens. What Is more.
{ will continue to produce them. II
las summer rains and it has mornings
hat. II they were not so plentiful, |
would be appreciated as things worth
n themselves a great deal of work and
Is recompense for many hard perplexi- |
les. 1t would be the most cheerful Of !
places if 1t were not for some Of the |
people who try TO run 1t.
What these people should have
earned from the war and what an |
,arently they have not learned is that
infinite truth was packed into a few !
words by the man who first said that
YOU cant get by with it. You cant .
yet by with It, when, whether as a
minister of state or bricklaver. YOU
ry 10 grab what is not properly yours. !
The most certain law of all life il /
he law Of compensation. 1t works our
'or governments as surely as 1t works
,ut for men. 1t is impossible to escape