Evening star., 1932-12-10
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

II don't want to take your valuable
time" he said, sitting down and TAX
ing it.
Curious, how many people there seem
to be who do what they say they do
not want to do.
If one takes them at their word it Is
one thing, and if at their actions, dis
tinctly another.
What is one to believe Of them, their
words or their actions?
Actions, of course, for actions speak
louder than words"
There is a world of wisdom in most
SUCH homely aphorisns. While they are
not universally applicable, having many
exceptions, there Is much truth in them
at bottom.
In such a case as cited above there
is no intention to deceive, Of course
the fellow says what he says out OF
poiiteness' sake, bsc& ise il sounds good,
and is the usual thing to say.
He does not expect any one TO. pay
any attention to what he says.
He would be tremendously surprised
Ii any one seriously accused him OF
saying one thing and doing another.
) But the truth is that a great many
human beings far TOO little value suiting
the action to the word.
WUtuc, WILL tticiii, ntC lhLiCiJ WI Ac
not things, and they sling them around
in the most careless way. Probably 1t
is because mankind, as mass. dis
covered this very long time ago that
the world today possesses contracts and
the like.
The sanctity of the signature. the
binMng power of contracts, are the
only possible answers to the habit OF
mind which is willing to say one thing
for whatever reason, and then do pre-
cisely the opposite, without ado OF
thought about it, one way or the other
The real danger of saying one thing
and doing another, however, is not To
other people. but to ones self.
1t spells in6ecision.
And indecision is a great basic discs Sc
of our day, one which cuts into the
moral fibre of peoples and renders their
wills fabby.
A fiabby will means that one is never
sure of what he wants, or which way
he is going.
What is worse, in some ways, is
that he is never satisfied, no matter
what he gets, or which way he goes.
Always the thing he did not acquire
looks better to him, the road he failed
to take appears more alluring.
Perhaps tiilS Is WHY OIlS licdto SO
many men say. IN confidence, that "if
they had it all to do over again" they
would go into some other business than
the one they are in.
They don't mean it, of course, at
least not exactly the way it sounds. but
there is enough truth behind the state
msnt to show up the indecision which
causes it,
It gets back to fiacid WILL caused
by indecisiep, in turn caused. in part,
by bad habit of saying one thing and
doing another
No doubt many human beings would
be more sure of themselves. and thus
happier persons to live with themselves,
II they were more scrupulous in match
ing their words and their actions.
How much better it would have been
for the gentleman quoted above. if,
instead of having said ne did not want
to take ones valuable time" and then
sitting down and taking 1t, he had
frankly stated that he had something
to explain, or a favor to ask.
A small change. surely, but an i'm
possible one for the mind which hap
pens to run that way"
One may think that there is, always,
in such cases, an ingrained intent TO
deceive
In such a slight case it may make no
difference, but In larger instance 1t
might make a very great deal of diff
ference
1t brings one squarely around to the
realization that there are. basically,