Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1934-11-30
TO-DAY AND
TOMORROW
FRANK PARKER STocKBRlDGE

III BY
II FRANK Parker STocKBRlDGH
they're scarce
In the long run, brains rule the
world. The principal thing that
holds humanity back from perfec-
ton is that there are not enough
Ifrst-rate brains to 60 around. The
world has produced few original
thinkers. Those whose thoughts
have been preserved have exercised
liar greater influence and for longer
periods than all the rulers, armies
and builders put together.
At a social gathering the other
might the question came up as to
who, by the power of his brains
I%alone, had most widely influenced
the course of mankind. Leaving
the past 100 years out of considera-
ton, for it is still too soon to evalu-
ate thoughts so recent, l picked as
my list C%onfucius, the Chinese
philosopher; Aristotle and Plato, the
Greek thinkers; Euclid, the father
of geometry; Calico, first to i'm
agine that the world was round and
to guess that there was another side
to it; and Shakespeare, the universal
interpreter of human nature 20
itself.
If l were to come down to recent
times / would add Karl Marx and
Charles Darwin, as the foremost
brains of our times. But l can't see
far enough ahead to guess whether
they will be as influential a thous-
and years from now.
ideas put to work
The value of original ideas is that
they set SO many unoriginial people
at work trying to see whether the
ideas will work or not.
An idea is no good unless it is put
to work, no matter how original it
is. Clerk Maxwell, the English
mathematician, originated the idea
that all matter, visible or invisible,
moves in rhythmical waves. He
set down the idea in a mathematical
formula. Herr, the German physi-
cist, took Maxwell's formula and
discovered that the idea was sound.
There were wave of space. He
wrote down his proof of that. Then
Marconi set himself to the task OF
putting those waves to work for
the transmission of signals, and
wireless t~elegraphy was the result:
with its offspring, radio broadcast
ing.
! One idea of an obsurce mathema-
tician has thus given work to mil
lions, cut down time and space, anc
gives enjoyment and information te
hundreds of millions. In its field i,
has changed the customs ane
thoughts of the world.
Everything that we call progress!
got its start in the mind of scmt
original thinker.
TOOLS aid to muscles
Brains and their product, ideas
are tools. The highly-skilled high
Ily-paid workers of the world carr
big pay because they add those
tools to the mechanical devices with
which the ordinary worker has te
do his daily job.
Industrial progress began wher
men began building brains into the
tools of production, making ma
chimes which could be operated
without the use of brains. That
made it possible to set men of little
brain-power at work turning out
the most perfect mechanisms. And
since labor, in the long run, is al
ways paid in proportion to the value
of its product, by multiplying the
number of perfect products the
worker could produce in a day the
brain-treated tools made it possible
for him to earn more than he ever
could have earned with his unaided
muscles.
And, on the whole, the product
Of the machine is far better than
~. IT +he had u,orL;,r