Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1910 — OFT-DISCUSSED SUBJECT. [ARTICLE]

OFT-DISCUSSED SUBJECT.

American Hurry Provide* Material for Many Debate*. American hurry has long been a subject of discussion by writers who have deplorpd It or condemned it, without checking it. Now comes Dr, Henry Van Dyke, who explains it. Writing in the American Magazine, h< says: “The high stimulation of will pofvei In America has had the effect oi quickening the general pace of life to a rate that always astonishes and sometimes annoys the European visitor. The movement of things and people Is rapid, Incessant, bewildering. There is a rushing tide in the streets, a nervous tension in the air. Business is transacted with swift dispatch and close attention. The preliminary com pliments and courtesies are eliminated Whether you want to buy a paper ol pins or a thousand shares of stock, il is done quickly. I remember waiting an hour in the Ottoman Bank at’Damascus, once, to get a thousand francs on my letter of credit. The polite director gave me coffee and delightful talk. In ■ New York the transaction would not have taken five minutes but there would have been no cosset nor conversation. “The American moves rapidly, but fi you should infer from this that he li always in a hurry, you would make a mistake. His fundamental philosophy is that you must be quick sometime* if you do not wish to be hurried always. You must condense, you musi eliminate, you must save time on th« little things in order that you may have more time for the larger things He systematizes his correspondence, his office work, all the details of hh business, not for the sake of system, but for the sake of getting through with his work. In his office hangs a printed motto, ‘This is my busy day, 1 He does not arrive at the railway station 15 minutes before the departure of his train, because he has something else that he would rather do with those 15 minutes. He does not like to spend an hour in the barber shop, because h/fe wishes to get out to his country club in good time for a game of golf and a shower bath afterward. He likes to have a full life, in which one thing connects jrith another promptly and neatly, without unnecessary intervals. His characteristic attitude is not that of a man in a hurry, but that of a man concentrated on the thing in hand to save time.”