The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-09-13
By Teacher


bruised fellows is the humane coun-
terpart of the sociological culture;
culture which worries its head over
living proletarians and incidentally
squanders leizure hour with paeans
to bygone ages, dead philosophers and
their deader philosophers. Ruskin's
lectures to the workingmen on their
own homely (bread and butter) prob
lens marked the turning point in cuI-
lures evolution. Soulessness of
antecedent cultures broke Ruskin's
heart with the bitter knowledge Of
their wilful irrelevancy, their con-
temptuous unconcern for the uncuI-
tured. The loving admiration bestow-
ed by the quickened common people
on Thomas Huxley was another tri-
butte to the efficacy of the newer DEM
ocratic culture. Speaking Of
Savants and Amelioration, recall
with delight Monsieur Berthelot's
great view of duty. In Some New
Conceptions of Science" Carl Snyder
gives us fine pen-portrait of one of
our most genuine humanitarians;
He answers to the fine conception
he himself drew, when, few days
later, he stood in the great hall of
the Sorbonne. It is not, he said, For
! the egotistical satisfaction Of our pri-
vate vanities that the world today
renders homage to the savant No!
1t is because the sayant worthy Of the
name 'consecrates a disinterested life
to the grand work Of our epoch:
mean the amelioration-too slow,
alas, to our view-of the lot of all.
from the rich and the happy to the
humble, the poor and suffering. That
was what was implied by the pablo
nine years ago in this same hall, in
honoring Pasteur. 1t is what my
friend Chaplain has endeavored to
express on the beautiful plaque which
the President of the Republic is about
to offer me. / do not know if have
completely filed the noble ideal which
the artist has here delineated, but l
have tried, at least, to make this the
object and end, the directing purpose
OF my existence"
Superior brains had actually be-
come ashamed of its quondam ineffec-
tual intellectually. 1t essayed the
great experiment Of the ages: To dis
cover what latent powers inferior"
men possessed, what development
they were capable of inaugurating.
what response they could make to
higher appeals. This experiment is
now in process.
Those who sympathize with the
masses are unanimous in their de-
sire to experiment some more: not
to cease, until every available cleo
iron of superior talent has been Civ
en- off to polarize the minds of COM
mon men. These experiments in
democratic culture are the hope and
inspiration of our age; the generous
endeavors of richly scientific epoch.
The reader may remember the ant
Illustration in Maeterlinck's "Wis-
dom and Destiny" of what NAV he
called the telescope and microsconic
views OF life. Two men were stroll
ing peripatetically along golden fields
OF wheat when in the distance thew
espled peasants laboring. The rhyth-
mic sway of hands, the lovely undu.
iations OF bodies, the burnt golden
mar OF the workers shining brilliant
~ IN the sun-what poetry in that
labor OF love. This the Iong-distance
view! But oh. what sadness of
mien, what tragic ignorance Of
speech, what ignoble bent backs. as
the space was foreshortened and the
short distance view clarified the vi
sion. The microscope is more depend.
able than the telescope! 1t probes
mysteries more searchingly, more ac-
curately. And yet our perverse hui
man minds are set in the very op-
posite bent. We love to prattIe about
the moon long before we have anv
knowledge about Mother Earth
Strange lands are more fascinating