Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 177, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1918 — IDEAS HARD TO ERADICATE [ARTICLE]

IDEAS HARD TO ERADICATE

h I ■■■■ - . - \ Erroneous Geographical Notions That Have a Firm Hold on the Minds of Most People. * It is curious to note with what persistency people will adhere to current ideas without ever thinking that these ideas do not, under all Circumstances, denote one and the same thing. As a matter of fact, the maximum heat is “between” North and South —viz, along the equator, and it is as cold at the South Pole as at the North Pole. Also the words North and South are as relative terms as East and West, and do not, to everyone, convey the same idea.

To make this clear, let us suppose that A stands at the North Pole and, turning in the direction of the country from which he came, feels the wind blowing in his face. He would, of course, claim that this wind was southerly, and nobody would dare contradict him, for does not the w’ind come from Norw ay, which is south from the Pole? His companion, B, however, who stands a little distance further off, let us say 50 steps beyond the Pole, pn the hemisphere on which America is situated, will just as emphatically assert that this wind is northern, as it blows from the North Pole, and the snowflakes it carries after having passed the polar point no longer are directed toward the North, but the South. There Is no use disputing; both are right and, although separated by a few steps only, that which to A is north is to B south.x