man say he hath faith and have not works? Can faith save him?" Matthew, 5:16. "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Acts, 9:36. Reference to Tabitha of Joppa, a desciple who was "full of good works and almsdeeds, which she did,"—not which she believed or felt. Hebrews, 10:24. "And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works." James, 2:17. "Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." It is good to have faith; it is good to believe; it is comforting and, doubtless, helpful to be a conscious possessor of "salvation"; but the one essential thing is to have a constantly accumulating record of good works-kind, generous, Christian deeds. You may have this record, (and surely you have?) but if you have it not, then retire to your closet and earnestly beseech your Maker to show you how you may become a complete Christian by adding to your faith the active basic principle that governs the Boy Scouts-the doing of at least one good, generous, Christian deed each day. I still believe this to be "rather a good religion." Don't you? A Is It Dangerous to Know? LEADING weekly, commenting on the "practice of generalizing from a few instances," remarks that "never was it so true that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." I don't know whether this is merely a misquotation or intended as a new assertion. But there probably is nothing more frequently misquoted than that line from Pope: "A little learning is a dangerous thing." Perhaps the writer in the weekly referred to wishes it to be inferred that either a little learning or a little knowledge is dangerous; but I incline to the opinion that he simply repeated a very much misquoted phrase. As knowledge denotes acquaintance with or clear perception of facts, it does not seem to me that any of it could be dangerous. A clear perception of a fact assumes such knowledge of it as would prevent it from being dangerous. Bacon brings out both ideas when he says: "A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth of philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion"; and again when he says: "Knowledge is power." A little learning, that is, a smattering of facts and parts of facts, partly knowing many things and not fully knowing any of them, is dangerous, but I cannot see danger in the possession even of a little knowledge, in the clear perception of the smallest fact, in the knowing of anything thoroughly. In so far as a little learning may produce a little knowledge it is not dangerous; but when the little learning and the little knowledge are combined and the combination is offered as pure knowledge, it is about as dangerous as anything we might encounter. By the way-but with no thought of danger in the reference-a little learning made the writer under consideration misquote Pope, where a little knowledge-that is, clear perception of the fact itself—would have given us the correct quotation. W Our Vocabulary and Our Thinking HILE I am on this matter, I might as well get all of it out of my system. The head of a State department of public instruction in urging better training in English in our public schools (and much room there is for improvement) uses these sentences: "We think in words. A small vocabulary means also a small range of thought." Is he right? Is he giving us the fruit of a little "learning" or a little "knowledge?" It is true that we think in words, and only in the words we know; but is it the number of words we have learned or the number of words we know well that prescribes our range of thought? A man may be a little acquainted with five hundred words, that is, he may think he has a vocabulary of five hundred words, yet not be able either to think clearly or to express his thoughts exactly. Another man may know well only one hundred words, and be able to think clearly and express his thoughts clearly. The range of thought is limited in each case not by the size of the vocabulary but by the thoroughness of knowledge regarding the words in the vocabulary. The extent or size of vocabulary used by the translators of the King James version of the Bible is surprizingly small, especially when compared with the vocabularies used in many another ancient and modern book, yet, measured by all the accepted standards by which we judge thought or range of thought, and the expression MAY, 1921 THE VALVE WORLD 161 of thought in words, the Bible has no equal in the English tongue. The average grade school pupil of twelve years might read the Bible from Genesis to Revelations without once having to consult a dictionary. It is the quality of one's vocabulary and not the number of words in it that determines not only clarity of thinking but range of thinking as well-for what good does a wide range of thought do us if a large part of it is vague, or hazy or chaotic? A Does This Show "Range of Thought"? GOOD example of what seems to me to be an undesirable "range of thought," if range is to be measured by the amount of dictionary in a vocabulary, I quote from a book entitled, "The Place of Science in Modern Civilization," by Thorstein Veblen. I am offering a valuable prize for the one who can tell me simply and clearly what is the meaning of this: "If we are getting restless under the taxonomy of a monocotyledonous wage doctrine and a cryptogamic theory of interest, with involute, locuicidal, tomentous and moniliform variants, what is the cyptoplasm, centrosome, or karyokinetic process to which we may turn, and in which we may find surcease from the metaphysics of normality and controlling principles?" I gain in a vague way from this that Mr. Veblen is suffering from something, but for the life of me I cannot guess what it is. Nor do I believe, can he. What think you of the Veblenian "range of thought?" How does it compare both in texture and range with that set forth in, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so unto them?" To my old fashioned way of thinking Veblen's vocabulary looks more like a verbal cyclone generated by a "pied" dictionary than a vehicle for either thinking or expressing thought. The Consumer Sets the Price FTER this little journey into the verbal realm, let us test our own vocabularies by considering the practical proposition: Who sets the price, the manufacturer, the seller, or the buyer? Try this one, also: Is the price of anything what is asked for it, or what is paid for it? It looks as though we would need to dispose of the second proposition before we may consider the first. I ask one dollar for a certain article. I find no market for it at the price named, but sell it eventually for fifty cents. What was the price of that article, and who set it? From a common sense point of view the price of an article is not the figure set upon it by the seller but the figure paid for it by the buyer, and if that buyer be also the ultimate consumer, he has set the final value and the final price. The manufacturer places a price upon his product, but this may not be the figure at which it passes into the hands of the wholesaler. The wholesaler in turn names a price for the same product, but it is the retailer who determines whether or not that figure shall stand, and the retailer, in his turn, marks down a selling figure, which may or may not be the basis of actual exchange when the consumer arrives. The ultimate consumer puts the final value on the product, because it has reached its last exchange. It would seem, therefore, reverting to our first proposition, that it is the consumer who sets the price. If we have high prices, it is because at those figures consumers will buy. And if we have medium or low prices, it is because consumers will not buy at higher prices. The business lethergy that we have felt for some time and the present downward trend of prices are due to a refusal of the consumer to pay the price set by the seller, more than to any other single cause. The consumer is setting a new scale of prices. When he gets through, business will go forward as usual. Now take this same proposition and figure it out in the vocabulary of Thorstein Veblen—that is, if you can do the task without becoming a "verbomaniac.' In the issue of THE VALVE WORLD for last February there appeared an illustration of the addition to the Curtis Court Hotel in Minneapolis. Owing to lack of information furnished, we were unable at that time to give the name of the architect. We are now informed that Long, Lamoreaux and Thorshov, a prominent firm of architects of Minneapolis, took care of this important. feature of the new structure. Second Annual Banquet VALVE WORLD as to make us seem like a mere infant. The issue of The Locomotive for last January bears on its cover the volume number thirty-three. From a history of the publication we gather that it has seen various changes both in size and color and times of issue, changing from monthly to quarterly, etc. But the editor maintains, and we have no reason to question him, that his little magazine "has been consistently and continuously a magazine from the beginning," and "is not a catalogue or a plant organ" or corporation magazine-published in the United States, and we most heartily wish it continued success. It is an interesting publication and serves its own peculiar field as well and as faithfully as THE VALVE WORLD endeavors to occupy its own chosen place. Puzzling But Hopeful Some of the little puzzlements of the exporter are illustrated by a letter recently received by Crane-Bennett Ltd., London, from a correspondent somewhere in Africa. The difficulty usually arises from differences in language, and we reproduce the text of the letter not in any sense as a criticism of the writer, but simply as an example of the troubles natural to correspondence between those of differing speech in trying to make themselves understood by each other. Such letters as this, however, are filled. with encouragement. For in thus trying to make desires known clearly those of us who do business in English are given an opportunity (without appearing to do so) to make further inquiries in such a manner as to improve the knowledge of English of our foreign correspondents. Doubtless if an effort were made in our London office to answer this letter in the native tongue of the writer we should puzzle him equally as much as he has puzzled us. The letter follows: "Dear Sir: Having heard your name and address from a certain friend of mine that you are the best manufacturer in the city of London. Therefore try your best well in kindly to let me have one of your best Catalogues. I require it presently. I will join you this consent without separate with you at all, unless you prefer to forbid the trade try to make benevolent to us in this recent time. Improvement on this time to let us have the samples of any things you have, and also try to bring the Catalogue full of illustration remuneration me this in time. I am not forget you this accordance." A Highly Valued Letter The letter, a facsimile of which is printed here, brings to the publishers and editor of THE VALVE WORLD an uncommon measure of satisfaction and encouragement. Both the sex and the advanced years of the writer make her comments on our efforts to in terest and in additional interest to the letter and the impulse that prompted its writing. Since preparing this for publication we have learned that the writer of the letter is the mother of H. R. Wolcott, secretary of the Crane Export Corporation, which adds measurably to the value we place on Mrs. Wolcott's message of good cheer. The Renting Habit When householders become renters by habit, that is, when they become willing to depend on other hands than their own to provide and maintain their homes for them, society loses much of that valuable individuality, that personal independence, initiative and self-reliance that distinguishes a great people from a mass of people. For three hundred years the American people have led the world in individuality, initiative and personal independence. The fathers pulled out of the European huddle in order that they might stand on their own feet; and having reached America, To the makers of the Valve would Smink to express my thanks to whoever is so kind, as to mai The magazine to my address. I have great respect for the Finn of Crane bo. and then business form of greatly methods, and do enjoy the reading of the valve world, and expecially The old trays standpoint. increased value to us, and encourage us in the continuance of a policy that seems to be pro ducing the desired results. in To keep with the funda touch at least mentals of the business world at the advanced age of eightytwo and to show lively interest in such comments doubt if they Though me very aged. Mar.3.1921 as are made in THE VALVE WORLD from month to month, is enough out of the ordinary to be noteworthy; to add to this that the person interested is of the gentler side of the large human family, the side not usually actively concerned with business, gives they had to stand alone. Most born Americans were born of parents who owned their own homes. Contentment with huddle, the willingness to live in some one else's warmed and caredfor loft rather than in one's own fought for and paid-for home marks a retrogression in spirit from the American way to the European way of life. However we may excuse ourselves for inclination toward the easy comfort of the choreless, commercial, rented compartment, and for shrinking from the harder demands of the detached, owned and paidfor home; and however respectable the renting habit may have become, it must be admitted that our inclination is a phase of social degeneracy, a drift toward the huddle, the beginning of the abandonment of that vitalizing independence of which the owned home is pre-eminently the symbol and support-Portland (Ore.) Telegram. знать Use Stop Check Valves on your boiler feed lines. |