The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-03-31
Howe About:
Spending Public Money
One Critics End
0. O. Mcintyre
By ED HOWE

-
- cause ! so frequently denounce
river Improvement Look at the
Rhine" he said; Improvement has IN
doubtedly beer profitable there" And
replied: ''The Germans have been
practically using the Rhine more than
tifty years | have lived on the Mis-
souri, river longer than that seen
money wasted on Its Improvement
every year. and not single steam
GOAT That's what | grumble about:
the American plan of spending pub
lie money. and getting nothing OUT
Of it"
The most merciless critic | ever
knew-and, | may add. the ablest-
has been charge on the county many
years as an inmate of the poor house
And not one of those be criticised
so severely Is in the poor house with
him. There was dull man named
Lem Whalen the critic was particular
ly severe with. but Lem kept at work
in his dull way, and is now leading
citizen.
A lesson with which | have been
greatly impressed is that everything
worth while requires hard work and
enthusiasm. no man can succeed at
anything and be idle, shiftless and
thoughtless. There Is a man In New
York named o. O. Mcintyre who has
succeeded as a writer. That he is
unusual must be admitted. but It de
presses me to read OF his great In
dustry. When he walks about, goes
work; looking for something to write
about II Is said of the poor farmers
that they work from sun to sun. Nc
Intyre does it. and. in addition. works
half the night
Some one has recently written OF
the real Thos. A. Edison. who became
so famous the entire world paid him
tribute He turns out to have been
quite an ordinary man; very untidy,
often unreasonable. chewing tobacco
constantly and splitting wildly. but he
was a great worker. He moved a bed
into his shop that he might economic
on the time required for rest; and had
a better time working than others
have playing. Good work provides the
good times we hear of, and are al.
ways looking for vainly in vacations,
in night clubs, at card tables and on
golf fields.
I believe In a fight when 1t becomes
necessary to effectively resent wrong.
The most absurd, useless and unnat.
ural sentence ever written was the
advice to love our enemies. No one
does 1t; no one should do It, From
the beginning of time men have. on
proper occasion, hanged enemies for
the common good. but some one (who
hated his enemies) did not neglect,
as a literary novelty. to advise others
to love them. have never been able
to understand why more than half
that is written or spoken today is
wrong, useless and unnatural
work man may engage In Is manag.
ing himself as efficiently as possible:
intelligent endeavor to avoid harmful
mistakes. A mistake Is a terrible
thing; careless man may blunder
into one that will punish him all his
life-a mild one frequently can have
the dire result of humiliating for
months or years.
A noted man named Haldane, con.
nected with the most famous of Eng
lands universities once wrote that
the most interesting study he knew
anything about was his own body Al
though familiar with all the sciences.
the details of which awe us so much.
this highly educated man confesses
no scientific experiment interests him
as much. or pays as WELL as study
of his own body
1t is a statement that should sober
the careless and illterate
| made a few resolutions for the new
year. and hope to accomplish a little
with some of them am actually a
better man now than ! was ten years
ago. because of my poor attempts to
improve very much better man than
| was twenty. thirty or forty years
ago, although still ashamed. A doctor
once said TO me: 1.-THE trouble with
men who say they will cut down on
their smoking. which would be enough
is that they never do It." | actually
cut down a little on my bad habits as
a result of my worthy resolves.
The African bushmen of today are
said to be almost exactly like the very
earliest races of men. They have no
idea whatever of what we call morals.
but behave better than higher peoples
or nations. as a mere matter Of con.
venience We should all be encour.
aged that our earliest ancestors had
so much natural sense and decency.
and try to get hack to it
Farmers themselves are disposed to
bow low In presence of the mighty
town men. yet Russian farmer called
Rasputin went to the capital of his
country. and soon became Its most
prominent citizen. The car ard
empress made him an intimate. When
Russian wanted a favor from the
car he applied to Rasputin. who
looked into the merits of the case and
decided. "You aristocrats." Rasputin
said to them, "have no sense. Apply
to me for it" One historian says that
had not Rasputin been i'll at a critical
time Ga knife wound inflicted by one
of the crowds of town women who ran
after him). Russia would have been
spared its present fate.
He was certainly wiser than the