The Monmouth inquirer., 1926-04-22
EIoweAbout
By ED HOWE

Copyright by The Bell Syndicate. Inc.)
1 encountered a sentence the other
day that really seemed important, aft
er days of reading without finding
much.
1t was written by Thomas Carlyle.
an old bear / do not greatly admire,
largely because he is not an agreeable
writer; but there are many diamonds
In the great mass Of blue dirt he
works over. One of his gems in par
ticular should have the thoughtful
consideration of everyone. He said:
stupidity is the chief instrument Of
the devil"
And there you have the naked truth.
There is no other crime than stupid
ity, he often said, for morality is large
~ matter of intelligence. The mind
which cannot or viii not perceive the
obvious, or unf1attering, is not only
hopeless but vicious Preferring to
credit their prejudices or their de-
sires, instead of the lesson of events.
was the chief crime he ascribed to
the men he held responsible for the
worst catastrophes of history.
If you are stupid, 1t is not only
crime against society, but against
yourself All the great punishments
are melted out because of stupidity
And most of this punishment is un-
necessary; all of us have certain
animal smartness sufficient for our
needs. Stupidity is usually cultivat-
ed, and stubbornly persisted in, spite
of hourly warning of it's dangers. Why
do the stupid so persistently insist on
stupidity? Every day they meet peo
pie who conduct their affairs with rea-
sonable intelligence; they never read
a book or a newspaper without find
ing condemnation.
Am l stupid? "Show me-" and IN
endeavor to do better. But you can
not "show me" with stupidity greater
than my own.
When l lose my temper around
home, and violently charge that some
thing l have put away carefully has
been moved, l not only suffer the PEN
01lJ VI III LlnC Eases OOt
of ten, Hannah, the colored woman. or
Adelaide. my niece, come in quietly.
and point out that what have lost is
exactly where put it. So 1 suffer
from humiliation, also.
.
Judges and juries are as liberal to-
ward woman litigants as they are to-
ward farmers who sue the railroads
for damages / know a hus-
band who sued his wife for divorce,
claiming she was running him with ex-
travagant and unnecessary bills.
These amounted to four hundred dol
lars a month. But the court promptly
allowed her $500 temporary aIimony,
in addition to attorneys fees. :.
The husband was about the maddest
man ever seen around the courthouse.
He had asked relief from a burden
and his burden was increased hun
dred dollars a month.
The great controversy Is, after all.
between the workers and the idlers.
since 1t concerns money, social posi-.
ton, food, clothing; all the real things
of life 1t therefore becomes univer-
sal, and brings out all the devilish-
ness there is in human nature.
And the idIers fight the workers
with all the enthusiasm applied to
holy war They are wrong, and must
know it, but in their attempts to plum
der the worthy, they use more grand
terms than the workers use in defense
A majority of books are devoted to at
tacks on industry; an Englishman
who has made a careful study of the
subject says the real workers have
almost no literature: everything In
print is colored with the pot and brush
Of the loafers.
Every legitimate worker who wran-
giles in fair competition for the worlds
dollars probably carries two idlers on
his back. Many of them are children,
necessarily dependent; many are wom-
en- who do not do their fair share;
many others are able-bodied men who
are only schemers.
All these watch and criticize the
workers who have the pocketbook,
and who, from necessity, must make
their money 60 as far as possible.
No idier is fair with thrift, care,
sense.
To lie is a natural instinct: the
truthful are those who learn that ly-
ing is foolish. There is a
natural instinct in every living thing
to be dishonest; the honest are those
who learn that honesty is the best
policy. There is strong nat
ural instinct to be idle: the industri-
GUS are those who learn that idleness
Is a bad habit Everyone is
natural glutton: the temperate are
those who learn that temperance is
best.
l often think of the difference in a
man ond xUnman in SOcfafv