The Washington times., 1920-06-13
Society and Drama
In This Section

How many men living. do you suppose would ask them
selves SIS the earth round or nat? the question had not
been settled long ago.
The millions would have said "0f course, II IL hat
see that it s" and would have thought moro about it,
content to travel along the old path Tradition called tho
. world fat for thousand centuries.
But one man. stepping aside from the in front that
shut out his view looks up and thinks for himself He finds
that the world round that ships sail around it, he tells
other men and new worlds are added to an old world
Hayinq spent their lives observing that wood floats on
the surface and iron sinks to tho bottom how many
men in million do you suppose would ever think Of max
ing ship of iron?
ONLY few years ago the first ship of iron manu-
factured And when the thing was begun, those that
laughed heartily at the idea and wondered how ruen
could be fools enough to to sail on an iron boat were
THE MEN THAT KNEW THE MOST ABOUT SHIP
BUILDING.
He that has walked the longest in tradition, whose
feet and mind are deepest the r the always who
thinks that he knows the most
The ordinary wondered whether you really could
succeed with ships of steel instead Of ships of wood Eng
sh shipbuders sunk in the of wooden shpbuildng
did wonder at ALL They KNEW that the man with
the iron ship idea fool Their fathers had built
wooden ships their grandfahers had built wooden ships
THEY building wooden ships and to 60
until the end Of time.
Nevertheless the ships of steel today and in the
the making of wooden ships interesting, tenn
porary expedient forced the nation lack of steel
plies
When the steam engine came along and it was
announced that locomotives would haul passengers there
was one group of men that enjoyed the joke and
dered what crazy thing would be suggested next.
Those men, absolutely POSITIVE that men would
be hauled by shoveling coal into furnace
instead of being hauled by putting the whip on
horses were THE OWNERS OF THE STAGE COACH
LINES.
They had doubt at all; they KNEW that the thing
couldn't be DONE and that since had always travelled
in stage coaches they always WOULD travel in stage
coaches.
And when Fulton went up the Hudson the paddles
of his little sdewhees beating the water and the smoke
pouring out happy day for old sailors that leaned
against their in the harbor They had not laughed
80 heartily all their lives But they did feel rather sorry
for the poor fool, that might blow up any minute
Even those that deal with progress make it their
and share its blessings just much in rut were
those before them They have simply chosen another ru
they have collected together little set of facts and
they have said to themselves II have the complete
wisdom This is all; there is nothing to learn.
For instance, William a. Vanderbilt the real Wander
b who helped his father to start the others in pleasant
parasite rut understood railroads and their
But he was building railroads ON THE GROUND. His
father had built railroads the ground of for
ever as long time lasted would build railroads
tho ground, and ON THE GROUND only
When it suggested that in New York City steam
rroad should be built above the street. with iron piers
making possible for trains to travel overhead pedestrians
and traffic underneath Mr. Vanderbilt for trihe
had the opportunity seize and control system that
would have given another hundred and fifty million to
his dependents.