The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-04-22
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY e. HOUSE
(From Philadelphia Public Ledger.l

IT have enjoyed your late bits on
tobacco writes Philadelphia clergy
man. LAS a non-user chuckled over
the absurdities and perceived, of
course, what you were about. But
that word this morning about the re-
actions to that innocent bit of badi-
mage floors me. I don't understand
| the attitude of the public than we
sometimes pretend to be. And we
! haven't the slightest notion of recant-
ing our theory that the>best way to
him to talk himself black in the face.
| That, too, was pretense. The man who
comes to the public without Interior
motive and talks to it frankly is bound
| are suspicious. We see Interior mo-
tive, duplicity-an attempt to put
something over-in every public or
private act. The man who is trying
| to be strictly on the level seldom gets
credit for good intentions. His rec
ompense must be his own satisfaction
| and the knowledge that his self
respect has maintained itself unfleck-
/ ed and untarnished.
| But, after all, what difference does
| it make? Roughly speaking, in the
twenty-five years last past, 100000
persons nave threatened 10 STOP the
paper because of something We had
written. But only three of them did
stop it and one of these quit because
the opposition paper was offering a
piano lamp with every subscription.
Another thing: The writing gentle
! man who INDUCES in satirical allu-
SionS is always over the heads of a
majority of his readers. They never
get him. But their failure to I'M
u hi d. IL III
set. That which it does not under
stand the public is disposed to clothe
in an air of mystery. Clothe a man
in an air of mystery and be is al
! in public interest. For ourself we
should ask no greater boon.
One thing the public does under
stand is the waIlop direct. And it
loves it. When, some years ago we
were cast in a place somewhat more
dependent upon public favor than the
one we now ornament, we called the
reporters in and said to them: THAT
which goes on here is public business.
The public is entitled to know every
detail of it. If there is anything you
don't understand you can come here
and find out about it. And you'll get
the simple and exact truth. You can
find out whether any official act re-
ceiving its impetus in this office was
dictated by regard for the public serv-
ice, expediency, politics, or a purely
personal reaction That was good
played it strong. But nobody believed
it-not even the reporters themselves.
Everybody regarded it as pittascene
talk designed to cover some deep
scheme of official duplicity.
1t so happened that bout the first
public act of which we were deemed
guilty was that of separating a sacred
ibex from the payroll. A pleasant
fiction had been built UP about the
lady, and she wars held in the highest
esteem by a public which really knew
nothing OF her one way or another.
For six hours after the news of her
removal first was bruited abroad the
town seethed with indignation. The
reporters came running over to find
out why the lady had been Topped !
from the official family tree. They
expected we would explain it in the
usual stock phrase; SO did the public.
What we said to them was this: "You
go back and tell your editors and the
public that Mrs. Harp was fired be-
cause she guessed wrong in the cleo
ton" The breeze over the matter
blew itself out that afternoon and
never sprang up again.
It was a community in which a
pleasant fiction had been built up
about civil service. The civil service |
laws and ordinances were regarded as
sacred. But we found ourself cramped. |
ca bined and confined by them. We |
told the newspapers we intended to
kick civil service regulations down |
stairs. out into the street and over !
into the next county; and we did it.
We do not wish to discuss the ethics !
of the performance. Probably they |
were deplorable. But civil service I
hasn't been mentioned in that com
munity since.
And so we intend to continue to
work the other side of the street. 1t
will cause US a lot of trouble. but the /
fun we shall get out of it will more
than counterbalance the grief
Anyhow, as Sam Merwin has so