Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1936-01-02
CULTURAL VALUES
IN COOPERATION
BY DIR. ]. p. WARBASSE

President, Cooperative League of the
Bureau News
Culture, like benevOlence or like
learning, had no beginning. 1t de-
veloped with the evolution of man.
kind; and like all human virtues had
it's roots in the fertile soil of self
interest 1t is a product of the pas
sion for wisdom, beauty and Justice
traces of which are found in all crea-
lures. The question, when Adam
delved and Eve span, who was then
the gentleman" was answered in an
cient time even as it is answered
today.
Culture may be defined as that
quality which prompts the individual
to seek the truth, create beauty, act
in kindness and do the deed that is
needed to promote his happiness and
the happiness, also, of his fellow men,
The cultured person is peculiar:
1. He respects and possesses knowl-
edge. That means what he accepts
as fact he subjects to the scrutiny of
reason.
2. He thinks logically. BY this is
meant his conclusions are syllOgistic
rather than emotional. He tries not
to be deceived by his own or by 9TH
ers' thinking; his education has
emancipated him from herd opinion;
and he has a capacity for suspended
judgment.
3. He practices self-examination
and self-criticism. He has a philoso-
ply of life and, therefore, a sense
of humOr.
4. He displays consideration for
others. This is expressed in his I'M
willingness to find satisfaction in
others pain, and in his desire for
justice.
5. He Graves and, he promotes
beauty. This is another name for
harmony and efficiency, and means he
strives to keep his person healthy and
clean as we'll as his environment or
derby and aesthetic.
6. He finds pleasure in the profit
able use of leisure, in the play of the
intellect, in the contemplation of art,
and in the promotion of conditions
that make for the better life.
7. He respects and exemplifies the
simple amenities; he has self-control;
he is courteous; and is possessed of
that quality esteemed by the Greeks
as urbanity.
All of this is in contrast with (D
wilful knowledge, (2) wishful think
ing, (3) egotism, (4) egocentricity,
(5) slovenliness, (6) banality, and (O
the manners of the uncouth, so COM
monty cultivated by those who be-
lieve that these latter qualities are
the signs of the radical, emancipated
Science is Helpful.
Science, which is another name for
truth and which has been defined as
organized common sense, is the basis
of culture. Whenever man has drifted
away from his cultural mornings.
science has brought him back. Sci
ence has changed society in its think
ing and conduct more than any other
power 1t freed the world from the
grasp of traditional and of imaginary
forces and sent it spinning through
space. 1t took mankind out of the
clutches of demoniac powers and gave
his fate into his own hands. 1t made
life more secure, abolished the an
cient plaques, and made possible
abundance for all.
The glorification of labor and the
suits of the dominance of the profit
motive in the economic life. and of a
fatuous labor philosophy built upon
an exalted notion of the capacity of
the least competent. Science has been
invoked to produce things in the in
terest of profits and of labor In the
profit economy this has resulted. as it
inevitably must, in the displacement
of labor by mechanical devices and
in the collapse of an economic sys-
TEN. The beneficent power of science
again is revealing to man the false
course he is pursuing. 1t is now OBJ
vious that the glorification of labor
anu OT pTOHCS CduIlOt Dc udFIuOiLiZcu
with scientific progress.
In the presence of modern science
and technology it is seen that barter
and trade, selling and buying, COM
petition anC. hostility, and the quest
of profits and wages-all to be gotten
out of the consumers-are leading So
ciety away from, rather than toward,
the cultural values And these press
ing interests, occupying intensively
the attention of the majority of man.
kind, are moving the world toward
scarcity of the very things it needs.
The savage prefers a red handker-
chief to Rembrandt painting. But
in that very preference he places him
self in the catalogue of those who
may get neither. The cultural values
are the more practical. At this point
in human history another influence
appears. A culture, which avails it.
self of science anG, every element Of
progress, now offers itself. 1t may be