The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-09-12
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY .. HOUSE. !,
tFrom Philadelphia Pubiie Ledsss)

Why not, suggests @. e. D.. stand
Gompers up against a wall and shoot
him as traitors are treated in most
Spanish countries?" We doubt the
efficacy of the remedy. If it were eff
fieacious, we doubt that II would be
desirable. It was tried. not so long
ago, at Herrin, Ill. The patient did
not improve under the treatment and
the result was depressing. Some of
those who administered the remedy
are about to go ON trial for malprac-
tice.
Somehow we are unable to contem.
plate Mr.. Gonpers with the large.
round hate certain of his contempo-
raries engender. He is what his Job
| has made him. The job calls for q
shoot-mouth. Mr.. Gompers' followers
demand a leader who can diffuse poi.
son. II Mr.. Gompers talked sense, he
| would have no following and no sine
cure. If it were not Mr.. 'Gompcrs It
would be some one else. 1t might well
kbe some one who would personally
apply the torch. Mr.. -Gornpers makes
yelled threats. but he never personally
| engages in incendiarism.
| IL our attitude seems pueriie and
pusillanimous, attribute It to SUPER
craftsmanship Time was when we
were as bloodthirsty as anybody. All
summer we've been trying to hold Cui.
len Cain and Adelaide in leash. Mr.,
| Cain was all for the machine gun.
ADELAIDE for the rope. In trying to
sell them the doctrine of calm and
1 unheated contemplation we may have
sold ourself
| We have recounted the adventure
of Mrs. Slim Possett, who tried to read
IF Winter Comes got in over her
head and had to be towed ashore. H
p. W.. who is leading the book, has
written to ask ii We can toss him a
irope.
In the approximation of literary
values we lay down only one rule: If
book interests you, it is worth read
ing. If 1t doesn't, it isn't.
| Not So Good.
Sir-This may be too deep for the
| column. but--one of my colleagues re-
turning from a short vacation mot the
lucky stiff who went West) reports
meeting and claiming, as a friend a
| co-worker of yours on the staff Of
your fayorite paper. one J. P. Pedigo.
j. p. P.swas hiking through the Seven
Mountains of Center County. Now for
| the points Pedigo isn't a bad name for
a hiker. is it?
W. 8. H.
| w. o. n. rs one OF the Columns val
ued friends at State College. But we
are less interested in his equip than in
his punctuation. We refer particularly
to his fascinating facility with the
\ parentheses. We get good many let
tiers from State. They are all written
by gentlemen who have the gift OF
| thus playing up the parenthetical
| clause. Is the proper use of the par
entheses part of the curriculum?
All this may seem trivial to you; to
US 1t is fascinating. A man who knows
how to use the semicolon or the pro-
per points at which to insert the par
| entheses compels our admiration.
/ Reporting continues to be singularly
deficient in the matter of presenting
| interesting detail. The fact that the
thermometer got up to SO in Mime
apolis was uninteresting and insignifi-
Fcant. But everybody Wanted to know
how high Mr.. Vice President Coolidge
went.
| Our own guess, fabricated from two
or three extremely casual personal
views. is that Mr.. Coolidge never goes
above. 60. -