Evening star., 1932-09-27

SpccCn wdS AnosAhe No"" "AAS
And not on sound waves, but on
wheels. A very moving speech, In
deed!
"The dangerous tendencies OF the
times" so rang a loud voice at the
beginning Of the block.
This great country, founded by the
fathers in liberty and equality" so
it went in the center.
"As long as the starry flag waves
DER" the voice declaimed at the
end of the road.
1t was, of course, an automobile radio,
the car bodily carrying along, like q fiy
in a street car, the meshed speech OF q
man a thousand miles away:
As interesting as the feat is. a pedes-
trian could not help but wonder If this
type of radio does not sum up very
neatly one Of the inimical tendencies
of modern human nature.
To want to have everything all the
time-is that not distinctly modern?
The auto radio is its zenith.
What one formerly had to 60 to q
definite place to hear, one now carries
right along with one!
In the old days, not so very long ago,
either, II one wanted to hear music or
a speech, it was necessary for the in
terested one to go hear them.
They did not come to one, and, above
all, they did not ride around town with
one.
This is what is commonly termed
scientific advance, but one may question
it, in certain moods, just as certain emf
nent gentlemen have put forward the
idea that there should be an in
ventors holiday"
Invention is to the intellectual credit
OF mankind, but possibly unrestricted
invention is hurting the amenities OF
living. If any one cares any more about
such things, and no doubt many do.
The clamor and ballyhoO of new
things rend the skies, but even while
the shouting is going on there are many
who question the advisability of the very
things which they are applauding 1t
must have been the same with the peo-
pies OF certain old European countries,
OF whom 1t was said they were vastly
tickle, for they yelled quite as loudly
for a new government as for an old one
What the critics failed to take into con-
sideratiOn was that all the while, dur
ing the years Of domination by one
political party. sentiment against that
party was quietly saining ground. Thou
sands who feared to say word in oppo-
sition nevertheless thought many, many
words, SO that in a new form of govern
ment they were not welcoming some
thing utterly new and strange to them
but something old and vastly welcome
= = x X
Would the lectures of Ralph Waldo
Emerson. the prime feast and enter
tainment Of intellectual men and
women Of his day. have been quite the
same If one could have heard them
while driving around town in the fam
lily buggy?
They would not
They would have been Emerson at
long range. Emerson unseen and with
apologies to ancient ears. Emerson un-
heard.
When old Fannie SHE'D at a piece
Of paper blowing across the road the
wisest sayings Of the Sage of Concord
would have gone glimmering into the
ether out of which they came
No, 1t was better for those men and
women to have trooped to the town
hall, on q cold and bitter night. as
they had to do, than to have sat at
home, listening in comfort. or even
riding around, listening to him.
Because ears have been put on wheels
does not necessarily signify that they
are better ears. or more learned ears
or anything but bigger ears.
Their very size, flgurativeE speaking
mitigates against their receptive hear
ing talk as well as the old folks
heard it.
What commonly Is forgotten. In re-
gard to some of the modern inventions,
even the most intriguing is that they
almost invariably tend to take out the
human equation.
Now, the human side Of anything, In
the first and last analysis. IS almost
always the most interesting side.