The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-02-13
By EMILE CoUE

Copyright. 1928 United States. Great
Britain, Canada and South America, by
North American Newspaper Alliance and
New York World press Publishing Com
pany) for The Age-Herald. All rights re-
served. Unlicensed reproduction in full
or in part expressly prohbited.)
Every American man shows in his
actions that he believes himself to be
a wheel In the complicated great
machinery that Is at work manufac-
turing a nation; that at least. is the
impression they give me. Their be-
lief in their individual Importance
may be, and often is unconscious, but
it ia always perceptible to the
stranger. 1t is revealed in his
thoroughness, in the feverish haste
with which he conducts his business
as though working to a hard sched-
ule in order to achieve perfection or
success in a given time and keep
abreast of the swift national move
ment. Without "a doubt this is the
result of suggestion driven into the
mind from childhood up. School
books teach it and it becomes auto
suggestion. The subconscious mind
of the American man tells him i'm
periously that he must not tarry. he
has no time for leisure. The nation
must be built. and If his own little
wheel stops it may check the adj
vance of the whole machine, and so
the American man is the hardest
worker in the world. A pioneer and
slave to a civilization in the MAX
ing he condemns himself to pre-
mature old age. Although L have seen
a few American business men who
look young at SIS or 70 they are ex
ceptions. The average man here is
old at so, because he is always at
work even when he is at play. He
carries his business with him to the
golf links and is thinking out prob
lens. meeting worries over his hur-
ried lunch.
And too often he takes them to bed
with him. His family life is sacrificed
despite his naturally affectionate
disposition. Generally a devoted hus-
band and father, the American is only
too willing to leave the evening of
his home and children to his wife. He
will send his whole family away for
holiday or a change. regardless of
the expense, for money means little
to him. He knows subconsciously
that he will earn as much as is neces-
sary. That Is one of the secrets of
his success in business-auto-su
gestion of success. The idea of sue
cess is in the blood of the nation
for the nation itself is success
the most gigantic success history has
ever recorded. And always the Amer
lean business man seems to have tho
notion firmly ingrained in his mind
that he is working not only for him
self, but also for the nation, for his
state and for his city. 1 have never
seen such boosting" as you call it,
of cities and states, as among Amer
6
rapid growth of such cities and states
and of the nation. Look at the men
who own or control some of the big
gest businesses or industries here.
They deny themselves all leisure;
they work IA hours a day or more.
know many such. Certainly they ex-
aggerate, just as some of those
boosters" of whom 1 have spoken.
But that very boosting" spurs men
on unconsciously to greater effort to
accomplish things and make their
own words true. 1 am quite con-
WINGED that the more or less vague
consciousness that he is an inds-
pensable unit in the great nation
building plant explains the element
of idealism' that colors the methods
of SO many Americans in the con
duct of their business despite more
prominent appearance of self-interest.
Ability to Concentrate
1t may be, too, that these broader
motives animating them explain par
TALLY at least the striking lack
self-consciousness in American men
which enables them to concentrate
their thought and energies more than
Europeans. Sometimes, by the way
that lack of self-consciousness man
ifests itself In less pleasing manners
to European eyes. In my hurried trip
through America I have been com
PEELED to sleep often in Pullman cars
and 1 was not little surprised when
I saw for the first time men emerg-
ing from their beds and passing
through the car with only their
neither garments and thin under
vest to conceal their 1usty unwashed
frame from the eyes of other occu-
pants, including women. On one oc-
casion 1t was full noon when a man
left his couch in such scanty attire
and passed unconcerned down the
entire length of the car, which was
full of women. That. of coursea
strikes the visitor from Europe,
where such incidents are impossible
Yet America has reputation for
prudi shness. A fine confidence in
himself necessarily goes with tho
lack of self-consciousness
He knows by the best kind of auto
suggestion conceivable that he can