The Wilmington morning star., 1941-02-25
. Fair Enounh
BY WESTBROOK pEcIrn

BY WESTBROOK PEGLFR
The Star wishes its reader,
to know that views and onin-
ions expressed in this article
are those of the author and
may not always harmonizs
with its position.-The Editor
NEW YORK, Feb. 24.-To tho,.
members Of American youth wbo
may be inclined to find fault Will
the state Of the nation and "a
blame the present senior class tor
neglect and sloth I should like to
address message-msolicited to
be sure, but prepaid.
It goes this way:
If you think things are bad no,r
you should have seen the mess
which we inherited around 1900
Hardly anyone had electric light,
then, even in the cities, and gas.
light was still luxury, and, Of
course, there were no automobiles
to speak of, nor any paved roads
and the plumbing was about what
you would find in a modernized
French or English mansion at this
time-which is to say very prim.
tive. Wages were low, but Won
could get soup bone for a nickel
and liver was free for the cat
but fresh vegetables vanished from
the peoples diet for the winter
and oranges were a Christmas del.
icacy.
Up to some time around 1917
the river front in Chicago was
revolving mess Of garbage, Liter.
ally, and old buildings infested bv
rats big enough to saddle and ride
and in most cities the transporta.
ton consisted of street cars onlv
which in winter were heated BY
coal stoves.
In New York, up to then, the
subway came up the east side to
And St., then forked off to Broad.
way and uptown, by comparison
with present system so intricate
that even some of the policemen
don't know their way around.
Only dozen years ago drive
from New York to Philadelphia
was an expedition, and it took at
least two and a half hours to get
past Newark. Our generation built
those vehicular tunnels and the
George Washington bridge, the Pu.
lash skyway and the concrete
through route which avoids the
hard going in the congested dis.
tricts. Our generation just oblit.
Grated South Water ST., Chicago,
showed back the lake and made
those boulevards which whip you
swiftly and smoothly to areas
which were country then.
Of course, I, personally, made
no contribution to these improve
ments, but if you are going to
blame my generation, generally,
for neglect and failure in certain
matters, you have to count us all
in on the credits. Those who de-
serve the greatest credit as ind-
viduals or groups were the dirty
capitalists who created the motor
industy and other productive lines
for sordid gain.
Furnished Drive
In the matter of public improve
ments, credit belongs to the party
politicians-many of them graft
ers, I grant you, who were con-
stantly trying to put the public in
debt to them for material improve
ments to which they could point
with pride in campaign time. They
furnished the drive.
/ You should have seen st. Louis
about then. You should have seen
Detroit.
So we have neglected you, have
we? Well, in 1900 there were only
ia, 900 students taking regular col
lege courses, fewer than one-tenth
of the enrolment in 1898, and
while it is true that the popula-
ton also grew, that increase was
only about 60 per cent. Work that
out on your polished intellect and
see how many more of you are
going to college in proportion TO
the population than went to college
then.
Why, in those days Miami was
a little isolated trading post ana
the Soil which is now showing up
green vegetables and even straw
berries in winter and all that citrus
was showing up only weeds, vlne'
pine and palmettoes. If you thlnk
the Indians or nature made tha'
change you are crazy. That was
all done by this generation, when
also produced the airplane, tns
telephone system, the radio anu
discoveries in healing tn a no"
cure people who similarly alllhg
then just had to die.
And all this time my generauoh
somehow contrived to preserve lne
| American liberties under the con-
stitution which you will not ap'
preciate until and unless they are
taken away. And if anyone ule'
to tell about the marvellous au,
vance in Russia, ask him NJ"
many ordinary Russians own au'o'
mobiles and what happens 10