Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-02-11
SMILE WEEK DIDN'T co BIG,
AND THAT'S CHEERFUL NEWS
At Last the Bottom Seems to Have
Dropped Out Of Canned Opt.
lnnAnanratAA

NIHEN Americans became too lazy to
w think or act seriously in the presence
of serious problems the professional opti-
mist popped into prosperity. lie had n
painless substitute for thought and he be-
came a national institution.
Feel cheerful - cried he. "Then moth
ing will matter -
When the war ragged and no one knew
how We were to come out Of II - no one
knows even now--this herald OF JOY went
about demanding that we sing In crowds.
A very large number of people were ex-
perienciny actual want because of the
limitless greed Of proftecrs The merchants
Of canned and comnercialized optimism wrote
verses and sermonettcs to take the pang
out of hunger and recommended that the
misfortunate look upon the sunny side OF
life.
Smile Week. which Mr.. Bryan welcomed
with a gust of praise and which was duly
inaugurated with warm rhetorical outbursts
from number Of public men who appear to
have been taken of their guard. seems to
have represented a last desperate effort OF
the Optimists. Inc. to keep their soft niche
in world that has grown pretty sick OF
them
When there are things to smile about 1t Is
not necessary to coax or goad any consid-
cradle number of people into Nightmares Of
imitation good humor.
Why shouldn't some one have started a
Law Enforcement Week? Or No Hold
Up Week? There might have been a Dry
Week, for the sake Of that variety which
is the spice of life.
Speechless Week in Congress or
Week for the PRONUNCIATION of Americanism
among Americans or a Week Of Hate for
NhA sNa1
to our national reputation for common sense
than a year of Smile Weeks. Best of all
would have been Week for the Dipping Of
Professional Cheercrs-Cp Seventy seven
Times in the Salt Sea.
Optimism is well enough in Its rational
forms. Cooked up by the efficiency method
and administered as sedativc dope TO the
easy going multitudes. It is about as bad as
anything can be without bringing the patrol
wagons.
The systematic promulgatlon Of nonsense
became for while an extremely profitable
business in the United States. When you
remember the amount of hard work done in
the last few years to distract the attention
of the American people from the realities Of
the course into which the Nation drifted
you Will no longer be amazed to find the
country looking at the hard and compli
Gated problems Of the moment as If 1t had
just walked from dream.
No one can smile or smirk way out of
the crowding difficulties of these times.
Straight and honorable thinking and
willingness to face the facts as they are
rather than the shabby limitations set up by
gentlemen Pollyannas are necessary in any
one who wants to help himself and the
human race out of n wilderness of doubts
and ilscomforts that ignorance and false
optimism created
Bryan may smile his head off without
proving anything. He isn't cold or hungry
or out of job or wondering how his rent
is to be paid. and, fortunately for himself
and the rest Of us. he Is not burdcned with
the responsibilities of an important political
Office.
Nothing grows so quickly rancid ns the
synthetic good humor and good will that
have been served up in commercial quantities
in this and every other American city.
Less than a year ago the Mayor and a lot
Of other well meaning people were moved
to generous works in behalf Of the young
men and the young women and the boys and
the girls who we're supposed to be drifting
to the pit on the wave of Jazz.
Some dances were held in the open. They
continued to the point at which some gen
uinc good will. little of real earnestness
and ingenuity and, perhaps. IL little of sac
rfce were required to keep them going.
Then they stopped.
1t seems never to have occurred to any
one that, with little trouble, that sort of
recreation might have been continued in
doors. as it Is established in Chicago and
elsewhere. What is being done now to
draw the youth of the city away from dis
reputable dance halls? A Council that hog-
giles over few thousand dollars necessary
TO provide food for the hungry couldn't be
expected to think of anything so abstract
as the normal needs of youth.
Who but the churches is doing anything
generally helpful for the youth of the city
now? Who is sincerely and humancly in
terested In the mutitudes who have had Ia
endure long sieges of unemployment? Be
cheerful by all means, and forget it,
To an expert smiling is easy. 1t requires
almost no expenditure of physical or mental
energy. 1t is easier than the drawing m
of resolutions, that other favorite indoor
sport of the inept.
Smile Week didn't go, as the SAVING is
big. That is.a good sign. There are some
extremes Of foolishness to which Americans
cannot be driven. And, for all YOU know.
the jolly chaps who, for n humping Droft,
undertook to help US through our trials
during and after the war, may now Lnye
to hustle forth and get work
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