The New York herald., 1921-07-03

of the Middle West should be as cultural as
il is sensational. I feel that in Middle West
ern psychology you will find almost equal
interest n let us say fight between lion
and bull and the latest play by Mr.. Ber-
nard Shaw. That is not such paradox as
II seems. If we find, ! did in st. Paul,
bookshop where three complete shelves are
devoted to the works of Mr.. Joseph Conrad
in Chicago an appreciation of good ltera-
ture that has developed book shops such as
one can hardly find abroad; If you find uni
versities rising upon the prairie and within
two or three years collecting five thousand
students, who arrive there straight with the
straw in their hair; If you find in young
cities like Minneapolis a splendid university;
in little Tulsa that is not twenty years old,
a high school made of white stone-it merely
means that here again are the character
istics of Middle Western desire"
For the sake of contrast, and to show the
breadth of the Observers sympathies we may
set against this his enthusiastic praise of
very, very different section:
IT love the South. like the beat Of life
below Mason and Dixon's line. | like the
negligent trot of the horses that no one hur-
ries Above all | like the grace OF inter-
course with this people of civilization older.
in sense than that of England because
they were cut off and so have preserved
much that England has lost The haste OF
London has not seized them, and yet they
have resisted the dulness which befell the
market towns of Kent like their voices;
their words are gentle and vain; they do
not question: nor comment; they respect
YOUR privacy or, which is as good do not
care what hides within your privacy
little languid, easily gay, never intrusive"
The author feels, however, as did his
countryman Kipling, that our characteristic
achievements are wrought in the mastery
of MATERIAL very different thing from ma
terialism. He finds poetry In -four mills.
though he puts 1t In prose:
The -four mills are like drawing rooms,
lightly powdered as BELTS. For the first time
in my life I saw n factory with parquet
floors There is a fascination in these things
the fascination of uniform movement. You
watch the grain from the elevator on to the
belt then to the grinder, to the shaking
sleves to the tests which exhibit purity, to
the hoppers which humanity discharge just
as much as the sack will hold. The sack
falls into a truck, and it Is gone. There is
something lovely in these great works; they
are deserts, void Of men, Nothing is handled
that can possibly be seized by fingers of
steel There are solitude and activity there
is nothing there save iron and lumber, In
the midst of which sits some secret. invisible
soul. Somehow l feel that in these great
plants | see before me the future of the
world, world where the machine will be
servant shepherded by new men and women.
in raiment which they no longer need to
soil, and who Will with polished finger nails
touch buttons that convey intelligent mes
sages."
The same principle is worked out in our
adaptation of mechanical inventions to com
mercial and to household needs
II like, on railway platforms. to see little
electric trucks carry the luggage, replacing
men who shout and perspire. II this is excess
It is in the right direction-namely, toward
the intimidation of effort. The United
States has done more in this way than
all the other countries put together. For
instance, the electric iron, price eight dollars
or So which is fitted to a light plug and
enables the housewife to save It's cost In
month by doing her own ironing. II also
enables the poor girl. who has only one good
skirt and two decent blouses. to remain
smart The iron is part of the American
home, where I find other wonders-the linen
chute, which saves the handling Of linen
and precipitates It into the linen ROOM the