Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-08-03

Discretion is the better part Of valor.
1t is an old saying, one of which the
/ world sometimes is ashamed.
The stigma of cowardice hangs to 1t
There may be one aspect Of 1t, how
! ever, which saves it from total rejec-
! ton.
1t has to do with the futility of
/ talking honestly to some people.
These are all those members Of a
numerous tribe who insist on grabbing
up words, without waiting for the COM
| pletion of sentences.
They may be called Word Grabbers.
A Word Grabber is fellow who is so
! unfair in the tactics of disputation that
he never gives one the time or chance
to finish what he is saying.
Perhaps he is afraid to.
Maybe he doesn't value the attempt
to achieve, in words, some approxima-
ton of the ideas which fit through
ones head.
There is a great deal of plain bunkum
in the oft-repeated thought that one
can have no ideas until they can be
put plainly into words of definite values
That Is not true.
While there Is resident in it some
small percentage of truth. as in most
ideas, good or bad the plain fact, known
to every one, is that all of us have
ideas which we are not exactly able
to encompass in words.
We know this to be true, for after
ward, maybe years later, we find our
selves able to phrase them very well.
An inability to say what one thinks,
upon demand, does not mean that one
does not think, or that ones ideas
necessarily are hazy.
1t does mean that ones ideas are
ahead of ones ability at expression.
This state of thing Is not new In the
world.
1t is possible to trace the evolution
of ideas back for centuries-indeed, for
thousands of yearS-an eternal struggle
going on all that time to make words
body forth the thoughts of mankind
The Hebrew search for definite idea
Of God is one of the most interesting
of these mighty struggles, in which the
very soul of mankind was pictured
forth.
It's highest form was not achieved in
day. Many years passed, many men
lived and died, before one incomplete
idea gave way to more complete, and
that in turn to an even better.
Yet no one would be so bold as to
assert that the earlier expressions were,
in essence, anything less than the lat
ter, or that their holders were not on
the right track.
They, too, were engaged in ian ex-
pertinent noble in purpose" which had
for its goal an undying ideal.
Ideas tumble around in heads, I'M
able to get out, caught in an immortal
trap, seeking egress.
Ideas are trusting.
That Is one reason why they are
ideals.
Each idea of mankind which Is worth
the name has. a firm belief in its own
mission
To be stated-that alone will suf-
| fee for its recognition.
At least, so thinks the innocent ideal
And that. alas, is where every idea,
and especially every ideal, has fooled
itself all these centuries.
It have but to get born" says the
trusting ideal for men everywhere
and Of all nations, to recognize me as
the truth"
This might be true If men were rea-
soning creatures But they reason only
by impulse
Man may be but little lower than
| the angels. but also he is but little
higher than the brutes, in some ways
| His first concern, necessarily, since
Nature Is as she is, is to exist.
1t will be found, even in our So
called civilizations, that the struggle