The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1921-11-03
Clipped Here and There


When. a stranger appears in ia COM
munity, and, after ringing the school
house bell to attract the inhabitants,
proceeds to tell them how good and
wise he is and how ignorant and vicious
they are, | do not like the fellow. |
believe neither in his superior good
ness nor in his superior wisdom.
Yet this sort of thing is as common
today in communities as are lice in
army camps during war. No one
knows the figures, but believe that in
this country today one-third of the
people are in some way connected with
bothering those willing to work at the
appointed, natural and necessary tasks
of mankind. And | further believe
that it is largely owing to these in
effective pests that our taxes, public
and private, have become staggering,
while public conditions are certainly
no better than they were when far
smaller number of men and women en-
gagged in the abomination known as
public welfare work
| believe everyone with mind ca
pable of analysis has a very strong
SuBDlClOIl, IL IOl COllN ANJlOll1 blislb biiN
railroads have been ruined and rem
dered less effective than they might be
by attempts of refcrmers to reform
them. 1t is a popularity of public
welfare work that while the proposed
benefits are always problematical, the
feature of expense is never absent.
And the railroad problem is entirely
financial one rates have become so
high, because of attempts of public
welfare workers to lower rates, that
we hear of industrious farmers sending
produce to market, and not receiving
sufficient returns to pay the freight
charges.
The same situation exists in other
lines of necessary endeavor. How
earnestly we have desired, and how
literally we have paid, to provide eX-
cellent schools; yet the procession of
public welfare workers to schoolhouses
has been so great, and members OF
boards of education so open-mlnded
when the welfare of youth is con
cerned, that we .have made so many
Improvement" that many are now
saving our schools, like our railroads
have been ruined.
How earnestly we have desired the
good of women No men in history
have been as gallant as the American
men in protecting their women and
giving them larger opportunities, as
proposed by the public welfare work
ers. vet the leading article in the cur
rent number of the Literary Digest IS
headed "Is the Younger Generation
in Peril?" EGirls are more particularly
mentioned, but, so far as the boys are
concerned, we have been very industri-
Gus in providing Y. M. G. A. buildings
and uplifting by means of Boy Scout
organizations. In the Digest discus
sion the charges always are too much
liberty; too much idleness; and both OF
these have been granted because OF
clamoring from public welfare work.
ers. -Howe's Weekly.
If the testimony of William j. Sim
mons, "imperial wizard of the Ku
Klux Klan, before the house commit
tee investigating the order, is veraci-
Gus, a good many people have been
taking the khan too seriously. In the
light of that testimony the order is
made to appear more silly than sinis-
ter. Brother Simmons, IN fact, played
the role of an overwrOught and hyster-
ical wizard in his appearance before
the house committee. Excited to the
verge of hysteria he declared that the
robes are not worn to terrorize people,
but. on the contrary "they are as inno-
cent as the breath of an angel.
At another point he called upon God
to lear witness that no selfish mer-
cenarv or commercial thought had ever
passed through his mind. On one oc-
casion, he declared, he told a fellow
kinsman that he would go to his grave
before he would prostitute the noble
order for commercial purposes. With
dramatic gesture, his voice pitched
high, the wizard" then added: IF
President Harding should resign to-
morrow and the people should rise up
over night and attempt to proclaim me
an absolute monarch and demand that
accept the office, I'd die before I'd
do it. "
The climax of the day came when
the imperial wizard resented the accu-
sation of some wicked newspaper men
that he was wearing a big diamond.
'sTbis is no diamond" he exclaimed.
at is an imperial stone And short
ly afterward the imperial wizard top
pied over in his chair.
The growth of the Ku Klux Klan is
expIicable only on the theory that a
considerable element of the American
people do love mummery, are fascl-
mated by mystery and, as Phineas G.
Barnum long ago pointed out dearly
love to be swindled
The ridiculous Ku Klux Klan order
is only an evanescence. Great was the
power of "the yelled prophet so long
as he could wear his veil, and his