Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-09
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

A correspondent wants to know II
we don't think discomfort . vice.
4 We do not.
Discomfort Of the proper sort is
divine.
One prominent washingtonian has
engraved over his fireplace the fol-
lowing motto:
Jamais Content.
Never satisfied, in English.
He had 1t put there because 1T ex-
pressed briefly and to the point the
salient characteristic OF his own per-
sonal approach to life.
We often have heard him say that II
he were ever satisfied with anything,
and especially with himself and what
he IL able to do. he would know that
he was about throu"''.
=
A petty discomfort, OF course, is moth
ing but q trouble maker, not only in
the individual life, but especially in
the lives OF others.
II one Is disconnected to no good
end. but just for the sheer perversity
OF the thing. without rhyme or reason,
he is harboring within his mind and
heart q prime nuisance, as he will md
out some day.
The good type Of discomfort is that
which makes one reasonably dissatis-
Ned with what he has and Is, and
thus starts him out on the search for
betterment.
One Of the greatest business men in
the United States, in addressing a
conference recently, said that the pur-
pose OF research in industry is to make
every one reasonably dissatisfied with
what he has
That strikes one as pretty harsh doc
! trine, at first We are to buy articles,
are We. to find them superseded by
fresh articles before the old even be-
gin to get worm
Yes, that is 1t, TO be reasonably dis
/ satisfied" N4kll what one has.
What IS that. after all. but what
every person actually does, in the every
day life?
1t Is merely q very frank, perhaps
an unpleasant, statement of something
with which every man, woman and
child Is familiar.
We no sooner achieve something than
we look around for some other goal.
We no sooner get through the grades
than We look to high school and from
there to college.
In business a young man Is glad
enough, at first. to become ONCE boy
to the manager, but soon that does
He sharpens his pencil on shorthand
,, and aSpires to be stenographer, then
clerk. then foreman, then assistant
manager. then
All the time he is reasonably dis
contented with what he has. II he
Is wise he does not permit his dissatis-
faction at any given time to overcome
him to the point Of grouchiness.
It Il only when discomfort assumes
the proportions OF vice that II be-
comes a vice. So much Is true of al
most any virtue In this curious world
OF living things.
Too much Of anything Is bad" said
the ancients. They knew thing or
two in their day, day which is still
In force in many. particulars
Discomfort is one of them. II q young
man or woman entering business per-
nitS this virtue TO get q grip on him,
TO the exclusion of his sense OF humor,
his regard for seniority and q sense OF
the eternal fitness OF things, he will
discover that he Is in the hands of q
bad taskmaster.
How is young person to know when
discomfort has lost its virtue and turned
TO bitterness in the mouth?
He may know this, in most cases
by whether or not his first impulse is
to praise or to blame.
This Is the test, and 1t is q good one,
II ne has the common sense and cour-
age to apply it ruthlessly.
There are scores of young men and
women, and older men and women, too,