The Nome daily nugget., 1935-02-16
Howe About:
Honesty
 A Firm Foundation Soldiers of Fortune
0. Bell syndioate.-wNu Service.
Bv ED HOWE

| HAVE never occupied official po- l sition of any kind; I have al ways been an humble follower, for gotten except when leaders are considering an additional tax schedule, a. new drive, or other foray.
 But If appointed chief of police I should have fewer street parades. 1 seldom go downtown without find ing a street roped off for another parade, and thus suffer annoyance and delay.
 The president of big New York bonding company writes me:
 "The following is a quotation from your last issue: T do not be- lieve the people can be cured of their natural dishonesty, but still have hope they can be taught hon. esty Is the best policy. if we teach 1t as industrlously as we have long been teaching some of our untrue doctrines The experience of this company in paying dishonesty losses forty years convinces me that what Is needed in this world is the teaching of honesty rather than preaching of 1t. Our preach ing has resulted In honesty being regarded as 'gOody-goody' doc Urine, to be eulogized by Sunday school teachers and the public schools up to the fourth reader. No real effort is made to impress young people with the practical benefit to be derived from honesty as an asset. Anyone can acquire 1t, and it will prove an inexhatsti- ble resource throughout life. Dis honesty starts when the individual determines upon course he knows is wrong; but the impression is not deep enough to hold him-he has not been sufficiently taught. If children were sufficiently taught honesty from the beginning, and continuously, 1t would not be so easy for men and women to depart from honest ways, and get into the trouble dishonesty always brings. I hope you will elaborate on this theme in subsequent issues"
 I am regarded as a tiresome scold by good many because I have al- ready elaborated on the theme in many previous issues. I believe we should teach honesty is the best policy as consistently and continu- ously as we teach the Christian re- ngion.
 Honesty Is not ''goody-goody" or Sunday school doctrine; 1t is the soundest article in the philosophy of experience. Good conduct Is the surest and safest method of 4nsur- ing success and comfort in life. Good conduct pays; and it is easier in the long run than bad conduct.
 I have taught this all my life, and shall teach 1t hereafter.
 A country or man may progress too rapidly. It was overprogress that caused Ivar Kreuger, head of the Swedish match trust, to com init suicide, and leave behind the record of scoundrel.
 It was overprogress on the part of the United States that brought us to the present great difficulties. Progress is one of the best princi- pies, but the details must be at tended to with the old details of caution and common sense. If the foundation is not built on solid rock, there will be a toppling.
 Somewhere in the hymn book or Bible there Is a line about the sure foundation. One must have 1t in everything, If he hopes to get along as comfortably and safely as is possible.
 The stories of Soldiers of For tune, as they appear in the newspa- pers and magazines exaggerated by other soldiers of fortune, make good reading; in my vagrant hours sometimes read them myself.
 A notable Soldier of Fortune has just died, missing the average goal of three score and ten by thirty years. He was in college when the war broke out, and made high grades in the football squad. Also, he sang in the glee club, and played in the band, but his grades in legit- innate studies were low.
 Of course. he promptly enlisted, and I marvel that a man wounded so frequently and seriously, was able, after the armistice, to perform such feats of exploration as he dis played in climbing mountains, fol- lowing rare specimens of animals in Tibet and Africa, and engaging in revolutions in South America. He hoped to fly across the Atlantic and thus appear in the movies, but at thirty-eight he was found dead l; whether by his own hand, or at the hand of one of his fellow adven- turers, is not known.
 Still, prefer the story of Thom- as A. Edison, and number men, who have striven in the more use. fpl, if less exciting, fields of en. deavor.
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 do not love life as ardently as