Evening star., 1936-03-21

Letters are always interesting. Here
are few:
Dear Sir: liked your today's article
a lot. It is provocative tof thought
and constructive.
ITO my mind the major difference De-
tween man and the other animals Is
this: He is endowed with those qualities
Of brain which make it possible for him
to make his past experiments serve his
future interests.
"Other animals can't do that. The
beaver can build house-an extraor-
dinarily good job he does, too-but his
house today is what 1t was thousand
years ago.
Whether it's a house or bridge, or
a wheel or a plane, man improves what
he builds. Looking at his work Of today
he is given the faculty Of visioning i'm
improvements thereon.
That's the difference.
"Man does this in the matter Of houses
and. bridges and wheels and planes.
Sometimes it seems that he can't do 1t
In more urgent matters, such as his rela-
tions with his fellow men. Certainly he
moves slower there. But II we decline
to lose faith in the quality which does
lift him above the brute, I think we
can see that he does move, and that in
the tomorrows he will make his past
experiments. even in wars, serve his real
future interests. Yours, N. N"
Dear Sir: Yesterday read your arti-
Gle in The Star. I cut 1t out OF the
paper, laid 1t aside, and this evening I
read it carefully again. am glad you
wrote it. I have for long time known
that 1t Is much better to make people
happy by praiSing them, especially when
they deserve praise than it is to criticize
them when fault Is displayed.
THE easiest thing in the world to do
Is to criticize some one else. I have
heard a great deal about constructive
criticism have tried to analyze it and
learn Just what 1t means. Evidently 1t
means this: You have made a mistake.
I could have done it much better. Let
me show you, or tell you However, the
party who is doing the showing or telling
might have made worse mess Of the
matter than the one who made the mis-
| take.
"It Is hard to place ourselves in an
other persons shoes We do not know.
We cannot always tell just what motive
animates them, or perhaps just what set
| of circumstances governed their actions.
I am referring now to the larger things
of life. In the smaller things. such as
! the criticism we hear on all sides about
everything and everybody. thoughtless-
| ness Is the handspring and lack of con-
| sideration and courtesy are the other
elements OF which criticism Is composed.
"The latter part of your article. about
making people happy, was especially fine.
| 1t is much better to give than to receive
| happiness. and peculiar thing about
| 1t is that when We give someone else
| happiness we are doing ourselves more
| good than we are the other fellow. He
who would be the greatest among you,
| let him minister unto you,' is very, very
| true.
II did not intend writing all this when
I started. One thought led on to an
other. I am not trying to preach. de-
| test that, but I do like truth and SIM
plicity.
1T want to thank you for writing that
article. It did me good. 1t made me
think, which is something I do some
times. Sincerely yours, j. 7. c."
+%*
maryland National Capital
Park and Planning Commission.
"Dear Sir: In one of your recent arti-
| cles you speak of birds that you have
noticed feeding this Winter. At the end
| Of your article you mention the fact that
a good book of colored bird pictures is
essential.
My connection with the Maryland
National Capital Park and Planning
| Commission is that of landScaDe archi-
tect. At the present time the commits
sion is endeavoring to work up list of
birds that are native to this part of the