Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 June 1919 — PHILOSOPHY OF WALT MASON [ARTICLE]

PHILOSOPHY OF WALT MASON

They say that everything on earth was made for (purpose wise; there’s nothing that’s devoid of worth—but what’s the good of fifes? They keep their merit so concealed we can’t discern the same, the while our swatting stick we wield, and cuss the endless game. Ah, happy thought—perhaps the flies were dumped upon the land that we might have some exercise, a swatter in each hand". That may explain it, in which case, let’s make the combat hotp enjoy the pleasures of the chase, and swat, and swat, and swat! Now is the time to swat them hard, before they get too thick; pursue them through the house and yard, and soak them with a brick. The fly that now escapes its doom will rear a countless brood; so let no fly sidestep the tomb—on w r ith the deadly feud! Rise, then, O sluggard, from your chair, from lounge and downy cot! Go forth, all brave and debonair, gird up your loins and swat! Let no foul fly escape your search! If one’s left on the floor, that fly ■will lead a bride to church, and raise ten million more. So take your hauberk and your helm, and like a knight arise; put on your greaveg and overwhelm -about ten thousand flies.

Soldiers who fought in the war with Spain lost in weight on an average - of 22 pounds each; the average American soldier at the end of the fighting in 1918 weighed 12 pounds more than when he went into the army. Contrasting the work of the quartermaster and the medical and the sanitary departments in the two wars isn’t exactly comforting to the present-day critics.

Republican filibusterers in the sixty-fifth congress couldn’t see any good in the United States employment service. Yet in one week in May it found jobs for 65,263 individuals. The employers showed what they thought of it during the same week by making requisition

on the service for 110,4 46 workers. Ninety-four and three-tenths per cent of the meh In the army were fit for service at all times, and of the 5.7% of non-effectives, only 3.4% were rendered so by disease. Of 195,000 Americans who were wounded, the lives of 182,000 were saved. Thanks to the federal reserve act, given to the country by a Democratic administration, the nation’s banking power has been decentralized over the country until the 100 largest banks are now distributed through 36 cities. It is funny how dear the Monroe doctrine is to the heart of a lot of eminent statesmen who never gave it much thought before they began searching for an excuse to oppose the league of nations.