The Washington herald., 1921-06-25


THINKS THOUGHT IS RARE.
There is nothing so inert as the
human mind" said Charles F. Ket-
Is no exercise so distasteful to the
that activity which arouses to even
slight degree the most recent ad-
junet to the human system known
as the brain. How we do hate to
try to think! / say try, for very
few Of us really produce mental
processes resulting in honest-to-
goodness thought"
Kettering is chief engineer ,anc
vice-president of the General Mo-
tors Company. His work deals
largely with application of the dis
covered secrets of science. Al
though a man of wealth he, like
all true scientists. appears quite
oblivious of the potential material
power to be obtained from such
wealth and gives himself indefatig-
ably to the pursuit OF knowledge.
THINKERS BLAZE TRAILS
FOR WORLD TO FOLLOW.
The thinker" continued KettI-
ing, "is he who blazes a trail mid
hostile protestations or indifference
of onlookers who assert the use
lessness and stupidity of his men,
tai attempt; they declare that what
he IL trying to do has never been
done before and therefore IL is
foolish to attempt II now; they pre-
fer to follow the beaten path, which
can be done automatically with the
so-called mind in static condition.
Later when the thinker has con-
WINGED sceptical, lazy-minde6
world of the truth and wisdom of
his thought II idly and contededly
follows the path he has cleared of
obstacles like the supposedly nom
Intelligent animals of woods and
fields, until the next thinker lifts
his head above the human herd in
his search for truth and better
ment. whereupon the human. auto
mata gaze at him with hostility or
with dull. glazed. uninterested eyes
thus the process goes on and on
from generation to generation.
In the effort to solve the worlds
problems and to profit by a knowi-
edge of natures laws there is no
institution so valuable as the re-
search laboratory. 1t is there that
old ideas which have not been sub
stantiated by scientific investiga-
tion. accepting nothing but proven
truth, are thrown in the discard,
and energies are directed to finding
out the new and applying the old
that has stood the test. The re-
search laboratory Is the best place
that I know of for getting one out
OF mental rut, which is the stag
nation of that intelligence we are
a - IL
in most cases fails to function"
DECLARES SCIENTISTS
WORLDS LIFE-SAvERs.
kettering believes humanity Is
capable OF doing some constructive
thought If II could take the trouble
to apply itself, but as he says 1T
Is so easy to be ignorant" This
human dynamo regards scientists as
life-savers of the world.
The thinker along scientific
lines is the greatest benefactor of
the human race" continued Ketter-
ing. 1T Is his Imagination that
projects the possible, and his in
tellect investigates to prove the
verify Of his imaginary conception.
This is the method used to ascer-
tain the truths that have been of
the utmost value to mankind. We
must have a scientific basis today
for our conception of the world
about us. No happiness or profit
can be had from foolishly indulg-
ing illusions; we must have the
truth which is far more beautiful
and eternal, for the more we dis
cover about nature the more we are
convinced that she never makes a
break"
q N 4