Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume], January 25, 1919, Image 1

About Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1902-1919

Image provided by: University of Utah, Marriott Library

                
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P jBHUf Thinking Paperjhr Thinking People H
i A S of old the builders and wreckers are at war. It is the only kind
Ep' .JTx. of war that never ends. However fertile in woe for humanity,
W' 'military combats come to an end. And when they terminate the
ll builders, patient, long-suffering, devoted and conscientious, shoulder
B the burdens imposed by the warriors and begin slowly and painfully
rak to remake the world.
ISp But always the wrecker is at hand to war on the builder. Always
Bfi the disintegrating forces of society begin to corrode the monuments
Hp of enduring gold or brass.
11 v The world's biggest war has ended and the hewers of wood and
P drawers of water have commenced again their loyal tasks. And as
mh never before the wreckers, with derisive shouts and dark menaces,
hr r have mobilized to stay the hand of progress.
Br Never before have the wreckers been so bold. In other times
E they worked secretly, ratlike, undermining the social and economic
Br fabric. Today they mass in armies and call themselves Bolsheviki or
JSkc Industrial Workers of the World.
mm These are the conscious wreckers. But almost as destructive are
Ke the unconscious wreckers the men who never gave vent to an an-
K archistic threat, never voiced a radical doctrine, never formed any
Kr theory or revolution and reconstruction, but who, wars being ended,
Hfc give themselves over to sloth-
W The wreckers and builders, the speeders and the drones are at
K " war.
B&b- We have heard moving panegyrics of America's achievements in
Hi; the war and we shall hear them again and again. They will tell to
Hf" us and repeat to the coming generations a story beside which the
Kg lamp of Alladin becomes a mere flickering and smoking taper. Some
HP thing astoundingly titanic was the feat of American energy and de
Bjf termination. The Hun had almost won the war, had made almost
I secure his title to dominion of the world, when, with an onset unap
R proached in history, American ships and men hurled him into the
E? abyss. s
He It was an apotheosis of momentum. Never had speed accom-
Hf plished so much. But now deadening inertia has taken hold of many.
Br They will not strive in peace as they did in war.
Wt It would require the character and the eloquence of another
Mp Roosevelt to preach the "strenuous life" that is essential if the world
m is to be saved from bankruptcy, if men are to create with sufficient
mt- speed the wealth that is to pay for the war in the form of taxes and
m , thus lift from the world a mortgage of hundreds of billions.
jm Before the war America had, and sometimes humorously boasted
jE, that it had, a million tramps. We shall have a million tramps again
Sf unless we preach and legislate against sloth, against "laying down"
Hap' for rest after the battle.
M Europe is a wreck. It is a monument to the work of the wreck-
BL ers who, in this instance, labored hand in hand with militarism. In
mL ac' e wrecers almost won the war..
gfr Some of us were amazed to find that the foundations of the social
B structure were laid so deep. We had fancied that the blows leveled
Wt. against civilization would have annihilated its historic institutions,
H but the labor of the builders through thousands of years had proved
P too much for the wreckers.
' The wreckers do not admit defeat. They are leading mighty
LESS WAR I
hosts in mysterious Russia against the armies of civilization. They are H
destroying machinery in our factories, throwing sulphur bombs into H
the haystacks of Illinois, Utah and Oregon. They are making freak JH
laws in our legislatures and they are charging such exorbitant prices (KH
,in the marts of trade that they threaten to bring the whole financial H
structure about our ears. And where they are not actively wrecking H
they are undermining by sloth. H
If we could perform the labors of peace with the energy and speed . H
we threw into the war the immediate future of the human race would H
be much happier than it promises to be. If we could but keep it in ' 'H
mind that a foe as mighty as the Hun still confronts us, if we could H
visualize that reality and forsee the perils that will come to us with H
defeat we would retain our state councils of defense in existence or jH
substitute for them similar agencies and we would be as active in our H
efforts, as liberal in our contributions for the aid of our builders as we jH
were for the aid of our warriors. H
je s H -fa lH
WHY "PAREE" IS NOT GAY. H
SOMEWHERE Scott has said : H
If you would view fair Melrose aright H
' You must visit it by pale moonlight. F
Perhaps he meant that H
Viewing Melrose by sheer daylight, H
You'll grant it is a perfect fright.
Which is to say that everything depends upon the point of view.
If you allow yourself to be unduly impressed by the peace conference
you will believe that all is solemnity and you will view it in the spirit H
of "Twenty centuries look down upon you, Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd H
George and others that might be mentioned." H
But you can extract some nectars of fun from the conference if M
you do not take the delegates, sub-delegates, proxies, near-proxies, M
journalists and Russian onlookers too seriously. M
Pause, for a moment, and consider the journalists. At present H
they are in their most solemn mood. The weight of the world has H
been placed upon the frail shoulders of the "Fourth Estate." The jH
correspondents have discovered that the statesmen of the world, de- H
spite their oft-repeated protestations of virtue, have gone utterly and H
irrevocably to the bad. Before they left their several homes the M
statesmen, especially our own statesmen, liberally promised that at M
last, after centuries of secret diplomacy, everything would be open and M
above board. If skeletons were found they would be dragged M
out and made to gallop down the Bois de Boulogne or the H
Champs Elysee. If Clemenceau "The Tiger" clawed at Wilson and H
Woodrow struck back snappishly with one of his fourteen points the H
heralds were at once to seize their megaphones, climb out upon the H
bastions or machiolated towers, or whatever dominant positions they H
could find, and blazon the disgraceful scene to the world. H
It was certainly a gay spectacle to see the correspondents packing H
off for Paris as if they expected their sojourn to be one endless round
of big stories. v H
Arrived in Paree they found it anything but gay for the news- H
paper man, however merry it might- be for banqueting diplomats. jH
They found that the lid was on tight. Some of them had come thou- H
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, JANUARY 25, 1919. M