San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-03-18
BEWARE OF THE MORBID

of suicides in the United States during
the last few years. This is no news to
the average citizen; for the average
citizen reads the newspapers, and the
newspapers print bad news as well as
good But how many people have
thought of or guessed at, in percentage
terms, the racial antecedents of those
who have taken their own lives?
No figures of this Specification are
available, but it would not be wild
guess to express the belief that the
majority of the self-destroyers were not
of English ancestry. Nor would one
undergo any great risk Of contradic-
ton if he should say that for the entire
period between 1914 and 1923 people of
Teutonic blood headed the list of sui
cides. Of course the latter is IN easy
guess, because the period includes time
of great dependency for Germans and
Austrians.
Exclusive of such times, however, it
may be said with no little confidence
that the English and American people
are the least given to self-destruction
A cynic might say this implies that the
two peoples are superlatively egotistical.
Well, let it go at that. 1t were better
to be egotistical to a fault than to be
perfectly" morbid.
The individual is different in some
ways from the mass of which he is a
part. But tie character of nation in
time of crisis is only the sum of the
traits of its individual citizens. Where
fore, it is no wonder that Great Britain
always pulls through that Americans,
though slow to anger, are quick in &C
ton and will fight to the last ditch for
their own; or that the Germans weaken
in direct ratio to the degree of their
adversely.
A few weeks ago the entire German
nation was determined to adhere to the
policy announced by Chancellor Cuno-
that of sitting idle while the French tore
up the Ruhr. Recently it was reported
from various sources that the French
were getting little if anything worth
while from the Ruhr. They were getting
much less coal than were the Germans
themselves, and were greatly worried
because the British would not permit
them to run trains through the zone oc-
cupied by his majesty's troops. British
statesmen, too, were predicting that the
French would soon come to their senses
and submit to the plan of the former
for solving the reparations problem
But just at that time, when to others
the future would have seemed brightest
the Germans let worry get them down
They began to wonder, even while the
French were experiencing increasingly
greater difficulties, whether they had
any chance whatever to survive under
the Cuno program. Consequently, they
undertook to feel out sentiment among
the Allies on the question of reopenine
the reparations issue on a basis less
favorable to Germany than that coun.
try previously had insisted upon.
This is but an illustration of how
mental qualities broadly characteristic
of a given people may and do affec
world affairs in which they are in
, volved. Conversely, it may partly ex
, plain why the American people hay,
invariably risen above their adversitie,
, civil war, panics, floods, droughts
epidemics, deflation and so on. Thei
freedom from morbid thoughts is one O
the greatest assets of the nation, ant
every citizen can, if he will, increas
l the country's strength by taking contro
, OF his own mind and requiring it to pro
} duce none but wholesome thoughts.