Evening star., 1925-04-19

TIME poor abusing the well-to-
do;
Wives and husbands abus
Il ing each other;
Employees abusing employ
ers;
Business men abusing rivals;
Candidates abusing each other:
1t is all the unreliable stuff preached
by the Soviets--the COMMUNISTS, the
Socialists.
Don't imagine Sovietism is preached
only in politics: 1t Is factor in every
thing. The man in the wrong in any
argument adopts the best excuse he
can think up hurriedly.
When in an argument with a rival,
you may think you have right to
eXaggerate; to accept bad things about
him on insufficient evidence.
You haven't.
Many excuse themselves with the
statement that self-preservation is the
first law of nature.
1t is: but telling a lie isn't the best
self preservation;
The best way to favor yourself is
to tell the truth. and be fair.
X X
Every one likes the Literature of
Protest. And every protestant is un-
reliable: he protests too much: CON
as he says they are. i. Protest is
like sentiment: it is always overdone.
ProteStantS should at least be
truthful and reasonable, but rarely
are.
For a good many years I have heard
of A Great Work of Art to be accom-
plished on Stone Mountain, near At
lanta, Georgia;
Eight years ago, happening to be
in Atlanta, / was taken to Stohe
Mountain by boasting citizens, and
told of the wonderful thing to be done
there;
The mountain was to be changed
into a battle scene on d huge scale,
faithfully depicting all the heroes of
the Southern Confederacy.
Ever since the Item" has been in the
newspapers and magazines; a week
has not passed without some reference
to this new evidence of greatness
regularly accomplished by Americans.
to the shame of other parts of the
world.
A recent row in the Stone Noun
/ tain Association brings out the hu-
initiating fact that all this big talk
has been brag. Although a great deal
of money has been. collected and
spent and many enthusiastic meet
ings held
The Great Man who was to carve
the battle scene seems to have done
nothing save give interviews to re-
porters and deliver addresses before
art associations.
A recent newspaper article declares
nothing has been done in actual cary
ing except half a face on the mountain
side, although from the noise made
and the long time the hullaboo has
been going on / had imagined the
artist had carved entire armies.
Half our American things are ac-
complished in the Stone Mountain
plan: the great things we do are in
the future. Private enterprise accom-
plishes results, but committee work is
largely boasting in presence of news
paper reporters.
How we have Dragged about air
planes.
Lately daylight-to-dark fight was
planned from Michigan to Florida
Great crowds gathered in Michigan
in the morning to see the planes
depart, and speeches were made boast
ing of the greatness of Americans.
In the afternoon crowds gathered
in Florida to welcome the flyers
While waiting, speeches were made
telling of our greatness.
In a day or two some of the flyers
arrived in Florida with tales of hard
luck.
And the man in charge of the ex.
pedition said his planes were all
owned by the government, fit for
anything: that the others were so
much junk.
And think of the billions we have
spent on airplanes; of our boasts that
in a few years we would be sending
passenger airships across the ocean
from daylight to dark-with room and
bath for every passenger
In all our public affairs the in.
evitable investigation reveals another
Stone Mountain.
You will recall the Teapot Dome
| scandal, originally one of our proud
est boasts: we intended to store oil
| and be prepared to wipe out other
| nations in the wars we were prepar.
| ing for;
But all we got out of it actually
was another humiliating Stone Noun
| tain.
X x X X
An old form of expression used by
cartoonists is THE Circle" An accused