The Washington times., 1931-08-18
True to Type
CANDHTS ODD LUGGAGE
REVIVES INTEREST
IN THOREAU
.By GILBERT SELDES


In the queery assorted luggage of Mahatma Gandhi,
on his contemplated trip to London, there in addi
tion to spinning wheel and two goats copy of Civil
Disobedence by Henry David Thoreau The professors
and literary critics who generation two ago,
bent making Thoreau mature lover" will be bit
surprised. But the fame of Thoreau is being revived
and his true significance is showing forth. Lewis Num-
ford, John Macy and Odel Shepard have changed the
man who was friend of woodchucks into the man who
enemy of society because he friend to
Henry and Waldo
The particular which Gandh had selected pecu
larly interesting today. Thoreau had gone to Walden
to live alone, choosing to be rich, Emerson sad by
making his wants few. He believed that the State
doing great wrong its inhabitants particularly that
the State of Massachusetts, uphodng slavery, with Bos
ton center of prosavery enthusiasm, not entitled
to the support of the citizens. So that when he
asked to pay rng tax, he refused and taken
to the Concord jail The story goes that Emerson
to see him and asked, Henry, why you here? and
Thoreau replied, 'Waldo why are you not here?
After this experience he wrote the essay which
virtually an announcement that he, individually, had
ceased to support the government He declared that
government could have any right him unless he de-
berately and specifically gave that right Government
he sad sis at best expedent but most are
usually (and all governments sometimes) inexpedi-
ent." What, then ought man to do when ne knows
that the government is wholly when his own moral
sense rebels against the laws? Refuse to obey said
in the pay of Moscow, should consider, first what is
happening America under the beneficent rule of the
Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
''Break the Law"
"HOw does it become man to behave toward this
American Government tOday?" he inquiries, and
swers che cannot without disgrace be associated with
it. 4 If the law is of such nature that it re-
ouires you to agent of injustice to another then,
1 say break the law. Let your life be counter fric-
tiOn to stop the machine"
When the slave hunters ran through the streets of
Boston Thoreau famed to anger, crying out that my
thoughts murder to the State and later sald nooV:
"The law wiH neUer make men free; it is men
Oho haUe got to make the law free. They are t the
lovevs of lauU and order WEO observe the L0O When
the government breaks it,
The later Wickersham report legal awlessness might
well have chosen this sentence for It's motto
Slavery and Prohibition
The law which compelled human beings to send other
human beings back slavery after they had escaped
was more cruel than the law which forblds the manu-
facture of wine. The injustice was thousand times
greater But the of moral wrongness IN the law
was the same And it is odd to find millions of American
citizens prosperous and, they think lawabdlng NULL
flying law just Thoreau nufled the unjust law Oh
his time He helped at least slave to escape ana was
one of the great defenders of John Brown Only mo
reaus action had great dignity, had true nobility Inc
strange and powerful leader who purposes to nulity
British law India had chosen heroic companion 1or
his journey.
Questions for Drinkers
You would think that the police, with all their expe-
rience could set perfect trap for drunken drivers YET
the QUESTIONABLE which has just been issued seems 1auV
in many respects not on the physical side whcn IS rea
sonable but the mental The supposed drnker mas 10
answer three quesions Is there anything the matter
with YOU? Have you been drinking? Have you 0een
taking any medicine? If know anything about drinkers
the to the first question: in every stage except
the hangover would be decisive No! or an equally en-
phatc And how both indicating that state of well being
that divine exharaton during the progress OF Whlcn
not only the drink but the whole world is all rlgnt AS
il is the privilege of every American citizen to nave ms
word accepted until proved false this first question
makes all the others superfluous
Under the heading of Mentality and Manner : ino
and date correctly Violent Abusive =: Excited
. Calm and Normal l submit that the ability TO ten
either time the date an inadequate test TO one
side and unfair on the other You will not misunder-
stand mel seriously believe that drunken drivers
ought to be beaten severely about the head and limbs
the moment they are caught; but like to be fair Our
system of keeping time is purely artificial: and not
exceptionally accurate; irae farmer, driving into
town with the milk, might insist upon using standard
time even in the face of pocemans daylight saving
watch.
What Date Is Tuesday?
Moreover, the two things are not. equal. 10 tell
time one consuts watch. To tell the date, one
throws ones head back tries to remember first what
day s decides incorrectly that it is Tuesday, ana
u41,, tho two