Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-04

In a day when jazz and booze seem
to be getting all the publicity 1t is well
to remember that America is still filled
with enthusiasts of learning"
We came across that excellent phrase
in BoSwell's Life of johnson" in the
passage wherein he describes where the
excellent Sam lived while at college.
mo man had a more ardent love OF
literature or higher respect for 1t than
Johnson" said Boswell. His apart
ment in Pembroke College was that
upon the second floor over the gateway.
The enthusiasts of learning will ever
contemplate it with vcneration."
Yes. there still are enthusiasts OF
learning. not Just base ball enthusiasts.
and motor car enthusiasts. and golf en-
thusiaStS. and tennis enthusiasts and
radio enthusiasts. Education has got
to a point in this country where it is
just accepted. AS people we are no
longer education conscious. We make
great pow-woW about our sports, be-
cause most of us come from people who
had little time for such recreation. But
every one. more or less. has undergone
the educative process until the wonder
of it. the very heart and enthusiasm
of it.. has been worn off in the popular
mind.
Even the children never rebel against
going to school. it has become so uni
versally understood. The schoolhouse, to
the little child, is as preordained in the
scheme of things as his own home. He
no more questions the one than the
other When the mysterious time comes
for him to go to school," off he goes.
1t is true that he may not like it for
a time, and may even rebel to the eX-
tent that he will say that The doesn't
want to go to school," but the idea
never occurs to him to dispute the right
of the school to existence. Few young
SterS have ever been known to
ask their astounded parents the pert
inent question: why must there be an
old school, anyway?"
y *
Specifically and on the surface,
learning may seem to have its enthu-
Siasts only in educational circles. He
or she would be a poor teacher. indeed,
who could not work up marked en-
thusiaSm for his Job. There arc, of
course, some misplaced persons who
finally get cut Of the profession. Tho
generality of teachers. however, have
a real enthusiasm for their work.
Heaven help them If they haven't! The
daily annoyances incident to handling
and training so many precious little
animals would drive them crazy unless
they had in their minds and hearts
the real quality of enthusiasm of pride
in learning and the things of the mind.
The United States stands today on a
slippery precipice with the good and
tried things of human decency and true
learning fighting battle with the forces
of evil and indifference. There is Moth
ing wrong with music, in itself, but there
NAV be when it Is teamed up not only
with indifference to good taste but also
with ridicule of common grammatical
rules. In many of the walks of life
Indifference to the best things of past
ages is joined with ridicule OF those
who believe in them at the present time.
Out of this conglomeration comes
shamefaced acceptance, on the part
of many, of what the world has agreed
to call fine and noble. These very adj
iectives are coming to be Soft-pedaled
in common conversation, as If 1t were
taken for granted that every one who
used them were a hypocrlte.
So much for the general impression
which one is likely to gain who accepts
all the blah-blah current at its face value
New York night clubs occupy place in
the New York mind which one might
wonder at until he recalled that the
hundreds of New York churches have
no such heavy means of publicity.
The misdeeds of f1ash-carrylng
Youngsters have been so widely circu-
lated that one might expect to see no
decent boys and girls left but any one
who lives near big high school knows
that there are plenty of Al kids LETT.
The speculative person will wonder VINO
or what is attempting to create an
immersion which facts do not uphold.