Evening star., 1923-08-28
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS

Now that air meil service between
New York and San Francisco Is a
demonstrated success, IL is planned
not only to make that route perma
nent. but also to install many others,
both longitudinal and latitudinal.
Ships that will pass In the night, as
, well as day.
i We are living in an age of great
miracles and many changes which
will make history. In fact, a new
kind of history is being written
history OF human achievement in
overcoming nature, such as previous
generations knew nothing about.
In "The French Revolution" by
Thomas Carlyle, appear the. following
paragraphs concerning history As 1T
was prior to the nineteenth century
history only of destructive wars:
"A paradoxical philosopher, carry
ing to the uttermost length that
aphorism of Montesquieu's, Happy
the people whose annals are tire
some has said Happy the people
whose annals are vacant, in which
| saying, mad as it looks. may there
not be found some grain OF reason!
For truly, it has been written, silence
is divine and of heaven; so in all
earthly things. too. there is silence
! which is better than any speech
Consider 1t well, the event, the
thing which can be spoken of and
recorded, is 1t not, in all cases, some
disruption. some solution OF continu :
ity? Were 1t even glad event, IL
Involves change, involves loss of ac-
tive force: and, so far. either in the
past or the present is an irregularity
a disease. Stillest perseverance were
our blessedness; not dislocatlon:
1t Is thus everywhere that fooilsh
~fS a N a dnna
| but of what was misdone or undone.
and foolish History (ever more or
| less the written, epitomtzed SYNOPSIS
| of Rumor) knows so little that were
not as we'll unknown.
less forceful style does Carlyle con
firm our Henry Ford and senator
Magnus Johnson in saying, History
| is punk!
History would indeed be punk II
! in this age of Improvement anu
| achievement such as adding 10 the
travel surface or the globe a ne"
globe of atmosphere. in which
| celaxies of ships are sailing with the
| rich arsosies of the world-or soon
will be-and already are bearing
faster than the wings OF the hurri-
l
| statecraft. of love and OF all the IN
! tricste activities of modern ciNlllza'
| tion-if history concerned itself to-
4 day only in the battles OF jealous
/ nations and the scheming or selhsr
noliticians seeking place. how far
short IL would fall from the thrilling
| stories of science which make man
/ in power and knowledge scarcely
| lower than the angels.
! = -
| But. with all the romance and ad-
venture Of what makes the warp and
| web of today. there is no imagina-
| ,ion which can forestaN the actual
titles. Tomorrow the crises OF today
! will be commonplaces. as yesterday
| they were foolish impossibilities
| Only today are they tinelins with
thrills and wonders. Who is SO case
! hardened that he does not gasp al
| the leap in day over mountain
! spanning a continent in one night
| and two pieces of days? A fiyer
/ learns at Cheyenne that his father
| is dying in Chicago. He Is permit
! ted to make double stunt and all
! through the night he speeds 1000
miles high above the clouds, and he
arrives in the morning. winner OF
| filial devotion in a race with death
4 X 4
| Has there been I'm fiction any plot
| so daring as that? The story writer
| must indeed be alert to weave plot
| and dream a setting, with hero bat
| thing the storms above the clouds
h.; and seeking the contra-trade winds
! which will speed his witch's broom
! from star to star. Yet that is not the
| blood tingler of the novel; il Is today In
| history. Who. will write the next chap
| ter Of the United States Post Office star
| routes? That Is the long sought erea'
! American novel Hail, We heroes-avia-
! tors!
! II only happy the people whose
annals are vacant" still rests true
how most miserable Of all peoplei
| imust be restless America! Vacant
The steamboat on the Hudson. the
|