The Washington times., 1937-06-01
NOW
Our Destructive
Civilization
FADED IDEALS
BY HELEN ESsARY

O0 IaW0, VINO looked GOWN
from his window in Heaven and
saw Man scratching, fighting and
breaking up his wonderful world
in "Green Pastures" must again
be deeply troubled.
Man, at best, is often a blind
beast. Newspaper accounts OF
some of his activities in q spring
time of peace and loneliness read
like acts of madness.
Say the headlines:
women Shot, Four Die, 100
Hurt in Steel RiotingS as Police
Fire on Crowd Of Fifteen Hun
dred."
Bombing Of Twenty-three on
Battleship Deutschland by Span
ish ROyalist Airplanes Keeps
Swastika Battleships Waiting
With Steam Up"
Torpedo Sinks Spanish Liner,
Fifty Aboard Reported Dead"
"Seven Berry PickerS Burned
to Death"
Seventeen BritOns Perish in
Air in Two Days"
Three WaShingtOnians Dead,
Twelve Injured in Holiday
Crashes"
pilot and Passenger Die in
Alabama Plane Crash"
troops Guard Jail Against
Mob Seeking to Lynch man Who
Burned Woman Alive"
Meanwhile in this frenzy OF
civilization man has created, ma
ture is green and fragrant with
young blossoms. The air Is warm
and buoyant. And the colors OF
the sea, sky and the trees are
beauty to heal tired yes.
Yet man, who values his intel
ligence so proudly, continues to
crash the walls of his handmade
world on his own head.
Maxwell Anderson said in High
Tor:
Nothing is made by men but
makes, in the end, good ruins"
ASH reread these first paragraphs
Of today's meanderings think
perhaps I've been caught by a post
holiday melancholy. Or maybe
the plans of youthful school and
college graduates for the saving OF
the world have startled my SNUG
maturity.
I wonder what has happened to
, @and to the others OF my gen.
Grafton and Of many other gen
erations, who also stood on com.
mencement platforms and talked
of accomplishment and faith
What has happened to the ideal
lists we were then? Wistfully we
look back and ask, where have
those eager young creatures dis
appeared in the years between
then and now?
Most of us, I am afraid, have
compromised and compromised uI1'
til, in Shrunken maturity, nothing
is left Of the hopes of ID and r.
Generally, maturity Is w1tless
and weak. It weighs ana pal
ances. It says to youth:
"YOu can't do that. Anyhow,
It isn't worth while"
"The cards are stacked against
you"
you'll end by taking things
as they are"
Maturity fancies it's own philoso.
phy and forgets that the begin
nings of philosophy are the ad'
mission of defeat. No one turns
to philosophy until he realizes he
hasn't got what he wants.
: Maturity also takes a silly pride
IN it's own sense Of humor. Gen.
orally it's laughter is hollow and
covers disappointment.
But you, you who are just
emerging from the claSSroomS
after q diet of abstract wisdom.
nav no attention to the counsel
of maturity, to maturity whose
power is frayed by present indie
cisions and a thousand past de
featS.
You have the strength of young
bodies and young minds and young
courage. Take the hurdles as they
come. You have nothing to feal
but age.
While you believe in your own
self, make long and fast your
strides in the race of life.
Soon, and it will be sooner thar
you think, you'll be at your alma
mater again for a class reunion
You won't be talking about am
bition and ideals. You'll be talk
ing about your complaints.
, A college alumnuS of 40 years