Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1935-07-04

date apparatus which the inventors
have been able to provide. In other
words, at any given moment the ma
chinery must be the best on the mar
ket; it must ever be kept at its high
est point of efficiency.
During the past four years, this
general rule has fallen more or less
into disuse. Earnings have fallen so
far behind that requirements have
not been made. The demand for goods
has fallen so low that factories have
worked only few days a week and
then with only part of the machin-
cry. Funds formerly devoted to re-
placements have vanished. Machines
have become rusty; parts have be-
come worn; bearings have become
loose; and, since there are improved
models on the market, the machines
themselves have become antiquated.
Now that demand is beginning to re-
vive, the money that should have been
spent week by week and year by year
on these machines and tools must now
be spent all at once; bat it is we'll
must be made when and as needed,
and not at some later time when the
problem is forced upon the attention
of the management. In some cases,
affairs have gone to such length in
these four years that now the ma
chinery of whole factories must be
scrapped to be replaced by modern
machines. All this because repairs.
requirements. and adjustments were
not made at the proper time
One sometimes wonders if many peO-
pie are aware that as in machinery
so in the mind; we human beings are
constantly threatened with the onset
of obsolescence. The studies CT DR..
SorensOn and others have shown that
mental obsolescence is no mere fig
ment of the Imagination. Peoples
mental tools do get rusty. Their men
tai bearings creak and squeak. Their
processes are not true, and their men
tai products are not machined to pre-
cision. Obsolescence has set in. Many
people are going about today thinking
with the concepts, the mental slants,
and the emotional befuddlements of
1900 or 1910. Many more are in ar
rears only to 1920 or 1925. A larger
group is composed of those who have
ceased all mental adjustment since
1880. For four years we have been
engrossed with the problem of eco
nomic survival. For four years our
mentalities have been the prey of OBJ
solescence through disuse. Our men
tai processes, have been clogged and
impeded by misconceptions, by anti
quated formulate, by fetishes and shib-
boleths, and mental fiXatiOn. We are
victims of mental obsolescence
brought about by our own careless
habits of study and thinking, or by
the total neglect of these essential
factors of mental efficiency.
The remedy is clear and it's applica-
ton is not unduly difficult. Accord
ing to the psychologists cited above.
we must constantly bear in mind that
for the intellect, as for the machine,
the best preservative is use. The
habitual and systematic use of the
mind for study and thinking is the
sovereign preventive of mental ObsOl-
escence. If the mind is thus kept
constantly at par through a regular
program of study its efficiency does
not seem to diminish with advancing
age. The masterpieces of the great
men of science have been produced
when these men were in the fiftieS
and sixties of their respective careers.
Let it be repeated that constant usage
at a high level of effort is the only
preventive of mental ObsOlescence-
Disuse for only small span of years
makes recovery very difficult. Let
every reader of these words take the
lesson to heart that his mental life
and health depend upon his program
of study and mental effort. Let every
student now bend the energies of his
mind to some definite program OF
study which he means to keep up as
the regular routine of his lifetime.
Thus will he learn and maintain the
habit of mental Open-mindedness
which is tfmeless, which always
thinks i'm modern terms with modern
concepts and with modern ideals.
Thus will he Danish from the shad-
owy background of his fears the hOr-
~ FOL