Evening star., 1938-06-09
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field.
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

The human mind is like lazy horse
It likes to jog comfortably along the
smooth, cool, shady lanes Of life, paus-
ing often to nibble at lush herbage by
the lane-sides, rather oblivious as K
where 1t Is going or when it gets there.
Such q nag needs the whip and the
spur. It makes its sensational spurts
Of speed when 1t Is beaten mercilessly
by the lashes Of unsatisfled desires, un-
solved problems, and broken hearts. It
runs best to get away from somewhere
It Just grows fat in stall with plenty
Of oats to eat.
On the other hand, 1t needs reason
ably smooth road to 60 fast and soon
gets discouraged when its way is strewn
too thickly with the cobblestones and
boulders Of petty problems and the quag-
n1ires Of poverty, Ill health and mis-
fortune. H. G. Wells, for example, offers
as an explanation OF the lack of progress
Of the Chinese for three centuries the
fact that their language was so difficult
that all the mind energy Of the individual
was taken up in mastering 1t, leaving
nothing Left for original, creative think
ing.
There are few spurts Of brain speed
on the roads Of Utopia. Probably any
mind has vastly more potentialities than
It ever demonstrates, for the simple rea-
son that 1t slows down as soon as 1t
reaches q smooth path and its driver,
the heart, stops digging spurs into its
TANKS.
A certain school OF psychologists Of
late has been advocating that children
~ -. Ha ftnaiys 1n{c
in life, the poor to accept their poverty,
the stupid to accept their stupidity. the
manned to accept their disabilities.
Futile struggle to attain the unattain-
able, these psychologists argue, is the
reason for the most Of LIES misery. In
other words, they say that the horse
should be. taught to balk.
Perhaps they are right. It is as certain
as anything can be certain In this world
that once these psychologists and edu-
Gators attain their objective all human
progress whatsoever will be at an end
and the question resolves itself into the
philosophical one Of whether or not
human progress is desirable, whether
there Is any destination worth riding
toward upon the backs Of the brain
horses. Upon this, OF course, there may
be difference Of opinion. It is, in fact,
q difference upon which the world seems
to be splitting into two hostile camps.
All Observation-Disclosures, Commu-
nistic, monarchial or capitalistic--is
firmly committed to the thesis that there
is no such destination for the individual.
It has already been reached, they say,
In their own particular set-ups Of society,
and for q brain horse to squirt to get
away from their Utopias is high treason.
Here in America we still retain the idea
1T may be naive, chtldlike illusion
that there is some place to be gotten
away from and some place worth going
to, however bloody become the TANKS
Of the brain horses.
These reflections are drawn out by
the question Of Mayor Bessemer Of
Greenbelt, Md, to his townsfolks: What
use dare We make OF our minds?
The Mayor, 1t would appear, has hit
upon the crucial problem Of this Green
belt and oil other Greenbelts, big or
little, villages or nations. A government,
acting as q deus ex rnachina, has de-
nberately cleared from the rough road
Of . ANAL group Of human minds some
of ths higgest and shATpest boulders. II
has set thsm dawn "a : fairly pleasant