The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-10-25
Edison Says We Can't Set Forth
 Facts Plainly
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 Thomas A. Edison has been going to school lately. His instructors are those who apply to him for employ ment. By studying their answers to his famous Questionaire he is learning new things about the human race. He is in his seventy-eighth year and knew a good deal about his fellow man before he launched his ques- tionaire, but he says the things he has learned recently astonished him. Some of the things he learned sad dened him. The answers to one ques- tion in his latest questionable he will not publicly discuss because they con- stit9 e an indictment of a large per cenfage of those who. apply to him for employment
 You write an article" continued Mir Edison, and write it as plainly as you can and think. people under stand you. You are wrong. Only per cent. can understand, because only 2 per cent. have sufficient imag- tnation. That is why it takes so long to get any kind of needed Legislation in this country. It takes 25 or 30 years to put anything over. If the people of the United States had irn- agination they could understand a thing the first time they were told and be ready to act at once.
 '1f only 2 per cent. can under stand" Mir. Edison was asked, what chance is there for self-gov0rnment?" ?" NOl d CudhCS OH SdI Ao piled. we have no self-government. We have government by a little group of men, most of whom are lawyers. You know what Herbert Spencer said about governments. He said the aver age intelligence represented by gov- ernmental acts was lower than the intelligence of the least intelligent member of the government That explains a lot of things about gov- ernmentS."
 MT. Edison was asked if human intellect had gained anything in power since the days of the Greek philosophers.
 "f think 1t has gained a good deal in power" he replied. The Greek
 philosophers were pretty blind AL
 most everything we have today was before their eyes, but they could not see much of anything. The lathe was looking at them. The Turbine was staring them in the face. The inter-
 nal combustion engine that is being so wonderfully developed today could have been produced almost easily by the ancient Greeks as 1t was by us It is astounding how long things 1 can remain right in front of us and not be observed or at least not un- derstood. Humboldt said it was 8 standing reflection upon science that 1t did not understand and therefore could not explain the passage ot
 horseshoe magnet. It is just as much | of a reflection upon that we dd not yet know how a bird sustains | itself in the air without Tapping its
 wings"
 | The fact that each generation pro- duces per cent. who are able to understand self evident fact when plainly stated, seemed to indicate that there were laws in operation that | ineXorably produced the per cent.
 MT Edison was asked if he did not
 consider that the per cent. were ! created by the fortuitous operation | of natural laws and he said he did He was then asked if he believed it might be possible to discover the laws that create superior beings and con- sciously go about it to accelerate the speed at which humanity is intellect ually improving.
 'The possibility already exists in theory, he replied, and it will exist in fact as soon as we learn more about the laws that produce brain power At present we know very little about these laws. It is all a matter of association mean by that, it is a matter of association of the little fel- | lows inside in ou that contain what ever intellect we possess. We are made of cells and some but not all of these cells manifest whatever in telligence we possess. Some parents happen to be suited to each other and their product has exceptional brain power. It is just like two men going into partnership. If they happen to be just the right kind of men and also happen to be suited to each JULIET they Hldke WOnOeT1ul success at business. A thousand other part nerShips fail and nobody knows why one succeeded and the other should not.''
 MT. Edison believes in the theory of eugenics, but he is not so. sure of ] its practicality.
 1 "A million daisies grow in a field and all are pure white except one D ! he said. Burbank, with the eve of
 a hawk, observed that one is a little 1 different, and in a little while pro- l duces a black daisy. The point is l that daisies can be bred to order and human beings can not. Human be-
 1ngs will not stand for it."
 | An effort was made to ask MT
 Edison, in a delicate way if he knew of any reason, from his knowledge of his parents, why he was one of the per cent.
 He wrinkled up his brow a good deal before he said a word When he spoke he was not definite He said he might have a general idea, but nothing definite. It was plain he. himself, did not know
 The only clew he gave to his own
 case was in discussing education.
 Edison, as he says in his sketch in Who's Who," never went to school. his formal education consisted of