Evening star., 1932-10-17

"Who are you going to vote for,
Bill?" the passenger asked the bus
driver.
The latter turned his head solemnly.
I'm going to vote for the last one
I hear make q speech over the radio, "
he replied.
It's not such a bad idea, after all.
Every radio listener knows the feel
ing of agreement he has with the last
speech he hears.
Everything seems so plausible, SO un-
answerable.
Surely there is no other side to the
question" he tells himself, after hearing
q speaker for one candidate.
An evening or two later he turns on
the set to listen to a reply.
"A good speech, a good speech" he
tells himself, hopelessly. Pretty hard
to get around it."
And so 1t goes.
What is the trouble here?
Scarcely anything more than that
the average human being utterly lacks
the knowledge to Judge between con-
flicting issues.
Yet every human being thinks he
can!
There lies the trouble, and there the
fun Of it.
From the days Of the old cracker
barrel philosopher to the very latest
luncheon table speaker. every adult
American has felt that he has per-
feet right to discuss politics.
Sometimes 1t seems as If the less he
knows about politics, as science, the
more he likes to talk about 1t. both In
the abstract and in the concrete.
Perhaps he never read an elementary
political history. Lord Bryce may be a
stranger to him. Economics is a SUBJ
ject which he never studied. All he
actually knows about conflicting the
ories would detain no one long.
He never hesitates, however, to ex-
press his views freely and at length,
whenever he gets a chance.
He has been doing 1t so long that it
strikes him as quite natural. Every
listener has been doing the same thing,
so it impresses them as normal, too.
OF course, it is normal.
Every honest American has a right
to his opinion, and mostly he sees that
he gets 1t.
Even the most loquacious. however,
at times will stop to wonder at his own
heat in argument.
Sometimes the intellectually honest
man. in the very middle of an argu-
ment, will stop to tell himself. pri-
vately, of course, LAS a matter Of fact,
you don't know what You are talking
about"
Perhaps the majority of impromptu
public speakers of this very wide
spread type confuse opinion with
knowledge.
They mix up hopes and trends.
They are perfect pictures of the wish
fulillment" of the psychologists.
Whatever they want to happen, Is
what they think is right.
Why they believe in it, Is quite an
other matter.
Very few men. even those who are
fond Of regarding themselves as intel
lectuals, have ever stopped to think
why they believe as they do.
Expediency sways a certain number
Of human beings into an eternal search
for material with which to boost their
own hopes. This material they then
send forth as facts" which it may or
may not be.
Expediency is a sort of opportunism,
and neither is quite as bad as it Is
sometimes pictured. In world such
as we know sometimes, alas, too welD
there is need for an honest seizing Of
good chances. fortnight acceptance Of
the breaks of the game"
The most philosophical man who
ever lived would be less than a man
if he steadfastly refused to accept a
blessing of heaven just because 1t
came through mere chance.
Fortune, too, plays a part in life.
Pure intellectually is a dream Of
man, scarcely to be attained even by
the most intellectual.
Men have been dreaming Of pure in
tellect as long as they have been