The Washington times., 1920-10-27
Today
That Jobless Look.
Typewriter Athletics.
More Marriage. More Room.
How Life Is Wasted.
ARTHUR BRISBANE.
Ah ! II " N DNAoA
Copyright. isss.

by ARTHUR BRISBANE
Copyright. isss.
The 'jobless" look appears once
more here and there. 1t Is an un-
pleasant look caused by many re-
fussls and worn by those seeking
work. Ii reflects worry at home,
poor prospects ahead.
The period Of unemployment has
come. Fortunate are those who
saved part of the wages when
good wages were SO plentiful.
On Tuesday next Republican
President will be elected. There
should be some encouragement In
that fact to the jobless man or the
man who fears soon to become job
less. 1t is clear that Senator
Harding has his mind on supply
ing work for people here at home.
rather than on the problems Of
Mesopotamia or Armenia.
The most interesting and impor-
tant athletic performance Of 1920
has nothing to do with the Olym-
plan games in Europe, with any
running track, football or baseball
field. 1t was the performance Of
young man, George l.. Hossfeld,
of Philadelphia, who won the
worlds championship for fast
typewriting, averaging l31 words
a minute for sixty consecutive
minutes.
This means that the champion
mental and physical athlete OF the
typewriter executed with his fin
gers fifteen movements per second
for thirty-six hundred consecutive
seconds, in addition to other move
ments necessary for spacing, in
serting new sheets of paper, etc.
There could be no more remark
able athletic achievement than
reading written words and putting
them down on paper at such extra
ordinary speed and evenness. In
all the writing of an hour there
were only fifty-four errors, for
each of which ten words were de-
Quoted from the winners record.
That the afferent optic nerve
should take to the brain the words
to be written and the efferent
nerve should take from the brain
to the hands the orders to be exc
cuted at the rate of fifteen move
ments to the second is marvellous.
High jumping, shot putting, hurdle
racing are nothing to it-besides,
typewriter athletics is useful.
In Palestine, thousands of acres,
now barren waste land, are to be
made fertile by irrigation, and
thus armies of workers will be en-
ployed, every dollar paid to them
will come back in cash and crops
tenfold. There is a suggestion for
the United States Government,
that sees lack of employment
creeping on and does nothing.
The housing problem is illus
trated in figures. One million
weddings in the United States last
year and only seventy thousand
new homes built. The United
States, it seems, is the only nation
in the civilized world that has ig-
nored housing as a national prob
lem.
However, the marriages have
helped the problem. After mar
riage two can live in one room,
which releases a room for another
couple. Perhaps the Administra-
tion calculates that if you have
enough marriages you will have
enough rooms.
There is wonderful power even
in passive resistance to injustice.
McSwiney, starving to death, has
probably done more for the cause
that interested him than could
have been done by any thousand
physical fighters. When a man
says 81 believe in this" and dies
to prove it, he cannot be easily an
swered.
The death of Joseph Murphy,
only twenty-five years old, a IA
nous young athlete, second Of
the hunger strikers in Cork to
die, reminds the world that it
should think more seriously about
deaths, not dramatic, but that
could be avoided. Joseph Murphy
was one of fifteen children. Now
that he is gone, only five of them
are left alive. Nine of the fif-
teen died deaths that represented
waste, useless suffering and de-
x.S.,o,. IN tho nort of fboir moth