The Washington times., 1931-08-06

that done by poiceman-has ceased to be news
Bad Spot in Every Picture
One good story has carried a speaker the bad
spot in his lecture-there is bad spot in picture
only sometimes the lecturer doesn't know t-and one
good idea really adaptable idea with three forward
speeds and reverse ought to keep writer going
for year. The trouble with most ideas is that they
exhaust themselves and has to wait for signal
stupidity (on the part of ohers) to make the thought
good again. Any attitude toward Prohibition falls into
this category do most political and economic principles
The superior type is something as vague as the theory
of evolution. The public speaker editorial writer of
the 1860s who embraced that idea, at loss
One of the beauties of that although it applied to
everything it wasn't necessary to understand the theory
in order its words Psychoanayss and relatvity
modern examples.
My faVore notion, Just noW is probably hundred
thousand years old; do not know who is responsible
for it, as became of it first part of caption
book review. The key word is "lag. The basic
idea is that human beings live simultaneously in different
periods their clothes being 1884, their patriotism perhaps
1918 their moral ideas $780, and The applications
are endless; industry lags behind its technical
researches morals lag behind facts the wisdom OF the
lags behind the habits of the race.
A Moral Virtue
The example which always comes first to my mind is
the proverb about the excellent effects of being early
to bed 1t lags behind the electric light which is both
cheap and safe, which candles were not. 1t makes
moral virtue of what was, originally piece Of common
sense and common economy When certain health
giving Of the reproduced by lamps the last
for going to bed early midnight will be lost
Yet the proverb will continue be quoted it is
by people who haven't the fanest intention of being
swayed by it.
Our highways lag behind the motor which
them They wider and better paved than the roads
used for buggies, but with few exceptions they
that people will drive from town to town. whereas motor
traffic driving from place through 20 Others
without stop-and the bypass roads, now coming into
existence recognize this Speed laws also aggards
since 20 miles hour often dangerous than co.
The Greatest Laggard
Perhaps the greatest aggard of all is the skyscraper
The of the skyscraper concentration-more
and people ;2 place. and every chronological
advance in industry shows that distribution the next
step particularly distribution of power which will set
factories miles away the cities Yet the skyscraper
which many people declare economically unsound is the
symbol of success l do not know how much Mr.
Chrysler is paving for his symbol
Symbols naturally lag behind fact. The cartoonist
you to recognize England right away, he draws
John Bull fat, choeric. country squire: since England
has passed into the hands, successfully of industrasts
and the representatives of labor and has taken in five
six nOtches in it's waistline the figure is totally
inappropriate So is the figure of the country hck,
who store clothes, a radio knows who
is that way about whom and drives a roadster.
AS I said, the beauty of this idea is its universal
applicability. Women know about it instinctively when
they only little boy their husbands and lovers for
most tagging behind their age.and live part
of the time mature and extremely intelligent business
and then go undergraduate a relief Fraternal
societies, with the most charitable impulses and with
sound commercial ideas, fall back into the dress and
antics of savsges at their annual conventions. And of
course politicians and statesmen the worst offenders
because they play the lower level deliberately.