The Washington times., 1920-07-31
Today
Temorrow's Yesterday.
IN Europe They Work.
Poor Little Grocer.
A Lion Cub.
ARTHUR BRISBANE

by Arthur BRISBANE
Copyright isfs)
Young Mr.. Benshimol, Of the
Harvard class Of 1917, finds a good
name for his first book of poems,
"Tomorrow's Yesterday" 1t Is a
good title for meditation by young
and old that say, "If only l could
call back yesterday and its mis-
takes."
Today is "tomorrow's yester-
day." and that is the only important
yesterday you have with you. Make
good use Of "tomorrow's yester-
day and you never need worry
about the other yesterdays.
Europe, with all its troubles and
heavy debts, Is setting us q good
example, to which we pay no at
tention. France and England are
TO be united by tunnel under the
Channel. That is world improve
ment, and Spain, assuming that
England will not object, plans to
connect Europe and Africa with a
tunnel at Gibraltar. France has
been steadily Increasing her canal
system, never ceasing even in war.
Most important Of all is this
fact:
, In the French devastated region
they have rebuilt SOME of the fac
tories, some Of the churches, and
some Of the fine dwellings, but they
have rebuilt every one of the
schools.
In America the biggest city and
many smaller cities need more and
better schools, but neglect the work
that ought to be most important.
We need canals, from the Lakes
to the Gulf, via the Mississippi
valley, and eastward to the Attain
tic.
We talk, but do little. In the
war, for q few months, we al
lowed so much to be stolen. SO
much more to be wasted, that we
recover more slowly than other
nations at war for five years.
A little grocer, named Lessen,
made q serious mistake and Is now
In jail, to stay two years. Lessen
boarded two hundred thousand
pounds Of sugar, and was antici-
pating pleasant profiteering.
Foolish Lessen should have
known that profiteering at retail
is dangerous. Had he gone in on
q big scale, dealing in millions Of
tons instead of thousands of
pounds, cooperating with others
to control the entire world sugar
supply, putting the price from five
cents up to twenty-five cents, he
would have been quite safe. If you
prolteer, do It thoroughly.
YOU read that a baby lion has
been, born, behind iron bars, on a
cement floor at the Bronx Zoo,
and that Elmer Hyatt, eighteen
years old. youngest ever killed by
electrocution, has been sent into
the other world.
. The lion cub, son of Akbar and
Helen, queer mates historically, is
doomed to sad, strange life. No
jungle or desert or antelope for
him. He is SO far from freedom
that he would not reach it IL he
got out Of his cage. Soon, worst
Of all, he will not want freedom.
He will simply roar for his meat,
be content to eat it and fight and
mangle. Not wanting to be free
Is worse than slavery.
Is there any connection between
the lion cub in the Zoo, unnatural
life. and the career of the eighteen
year-old youth killed by official
lightning? Certainly. The hu-
man cub, executed.
He lived a life about as abnor-
NAL as that Of a lion cub on a ce-
ment floor at eighteen for a crime
committed at seventeen. Never
had much Of a chance, and, besides,
the man whom he shot and killed
was shooting at him, but with the
law on his side. 1t was partly a
fight, partly q murder. Several
of the jury signed the mothers
petition for commutation.
If that lion cub, later on half
grown, should break out and kill
a man, they would simply put him
back in the cage, make it stronger,
and make him stay there. Would
it not be as well to put for life in
stronger cages the miserable crea-
lures, badly born and badly reared,
that act as animals naturally do?
Capital punishment degrades the
public of which it makes killer,
and deGrades the public conscience.
Murder will not cease while rul-
ing power sets the example.
Ponzi, of Boston, had a plan to
make so per cent profit in forty
five days, and invited the public to
come in. How do you know that
Ponzi will prove, to put it polite
ly, mistake because he invites the
public to share his profits? Men
often make 80 per cent in forty
five days and in forty-five min
utes, but they do not ask the pub
lie to come and get the money.
Fifty per cent in forty-five days
is good enough for the insiders.
Remember that when the get-rich-
quick germ intrudes.