The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1921-02-24
A GREAT LITTLE WORD Is
"WHY"
BY Bruce Barton.

A successful man whom / know
recently changed from a business
with which he was thoroughly ia
miliar to a business that he knew
absolutely nothing about.
/ watched to see what he would
do
For two solid weeks he did moth
ing but ask questions.
He took a train to Washington
to learn what information the gov
ernment had on trade conditions in
the new field.
He visited around among jobbers
and manufacturers; he even went
to the company's strongest competi-
tors.
Everywhere asking questions. 1t
was simply amazing the amount of
useful data that he was able to dig
out
Curiosity is a human charaoteris-
tic that has been much maligned.
Men speak of 1t slightingly. as il
IL were somthing to be ashamed of ;
"a weakness to be repressed.
My own idea is that when a man
gets beyond the point of asking
questions. he might as well be dead.
Without curiosity there would be
no growth, no progress.
Theirs not to make reply.
Theirs not to reason why,
may be good enough motto for
men who are on their way to be
shot. But from such men expect
no empires to be builded no inven-
tions made, no great discoveries
brought to light.
Curiosity (the Scientific Ameri-
can" once said) is the hand-maiden
of Science.
No doubt many man before
the time of Columbus had remarked
the exotic fruits and branches
tossed up by the waves on the
shores of the Canary Islands. The
natives had gathered them for gen
erations without even so much as a
thought. But to Columbus those
strange gifts of the sea were mes
sages sent from a land where no
European ship had ever touched
Out of his wonder about them
came his voyage to the New World
Then we have Newton's apple.
Things have fallen ever since the
universe was created And no man
before Newton seems to have asked
himself, Why?
Robert Meyer a ships surgeon in
the East Indies, noticed that the
venous blood of his patients seemed
redder than that of people living
in temperate climates. Doubtless
other physicians had also noticed
that fact. Meyer, pondering on it,
reached the conclusion that the
cause must be the lesser degree of
oxidation required to keep up the
body temperature in the torrid zone.
That thought led to the discovery
OF the mechanical theory of heat,
and to the first comprehensive ap-
probation of the great law of the
conservation of energy.
IL you have witnessed the gradu-
al progress of the mind of a little
baby. you have seen a miracle.
And what is the golden ladder on
which the baby climbs out of mere
consciousness into intelligence?
Curiosity nothing else. The
constant reaching out for the un-
tried (even though the reaching in
wolves much upsetting of flower
vases. and many burned and bleed
ing fingers,) the eternal why: the
unquencnaDle how and what.
Some men climL a little way up
that ladder. and are satisfied.
They reach a point where the
days task becomes more or less
where their feet follow
easily along a familiar path. And
they are content They would not
pay nickel to see an earthquake;
they would not open a new book, |
or stretch their minds in wonder
at what lies even beyond the next
desk above them, to say nothing OF
what lies beyond the stars.
Ceasing to be curious. they cease
to grow.
For surely cne secret of genius is |
this-the ability to remain inter- |
ested in new things, even into old |
age.