T story so impressed me that I find myself sub-consciously seeking apologies for being a white man. and a bit ashamed of the fact that I have ever boasted about it. It appears that in a certain western city, where there is a considerable "Chinatown," a Chinese young man was arrested for stealing. Among my white brethren this is an event of such common occurrence that we have come to take no notice of it. But it seems to be so uncommon a thing among the Chinese that it has set the whole of that Chinatown by the ears. The elders have met in several conferences to consider the matter, and because the young thief is now in the hands of the white peace officials, the public has been permitted to learn something of the views of the elders of Chinatown as expressed in these conferences. And the essence of these views may be set down thus: The encroaching degeneracy of the American, which the older Chinese say is creeping over American-born Chinese, was the cause of the young man's fall. For years Chinese residents have built up a reputation for honesty which is not being upheld by the younger generation. The American gives a note with the intention of paying it when he is compelled to; the Chinese gives his word with the intention of keeping it. In addition to this we are allowed to quote one of the Chinese merchants: "We are very much worried about our boys. We hardly know what to do with them. They would be good boys if they were brought up with their kind, and we very much dislike to expel them from the tongs, because we know it is not their fault. Most of the Americans they see are no good-always running around with women and spending a lot of money-and of course our boys want to do the same thing because they think it is all right." Then comes the crowning bit of irony: "I think we shall have to send them back across the water, for it would be better for them to learn the best of our customs, than the worst of American customs." It is significant of the attitude of the local Chinese toward this young criminal that bail has not been offered for his release from jail, nor has he had any visits from those of his own race. Comment that would fill pages suggests itself in connection with this incident, but what good would it do? The worst feature of it is that it is true, not only the incident itself but the strictures of the elder Chinese on the sort of example our own white youth is setting for the youth of Chinatown. Perhaps the cure for the trouble might be found when white parents and elders become "much worried about our boys." Some of the Chinese youth may be saved by sending them back to China. And I fancy that a little more of this tincturing of Chinese youth with "the encroaching degeneracy of the American" might cause the influential body of Chinese in this country to become ardent supporters of certain efforts now making to exclude the Chinese entirely from the United States. If the Chinaman would rather have his boy good in China than bad in America, some plan may be evolved to keep him in the older land. No "Taking Money Away from Town" OT long since a circus came to our town, and after making most elaborate preparations and doing an immense amount of work, gave two performances and then moved on to another town. I asked one of the owners of the show why he did not stay longer and so not only get better returns for his efforts but give more persons an opportunity to enjoy his entertainment. And he said that he would like to do that but the average city council would not allow him to remain longer, as "he would take a lot of money away from town." Here we have a conception of our circulating medium based on the laws and customs of the cave man. Money is for the purpose of buying us what we want, and after we have satisfied our wants, what matters it to us whether the money we spent is again spent in our own town or in some other town? Keeping money in town means bringing little into it. Building up the town and increasing the comfort and happiness of its residents mean sending money out of town, mean keeping money in circulation, mean sending money to the far places of earth for the things which we do not or cannot produce ourselves, and which we want to enjoy. If the average city council takes the view of money expressed by the circusman, it is as antiquated as the pyramids of Egypt, and about as useful. Antiquity of the "Labor Problem" An chronicharvelous spelling, informs us that one day in the year 1535 N amusing old chronicle, according to a contemporary, dating from Cromwell's time a crowd of English shoemakers sat on a hill outside Wisbech, waiting while their committee in the town dickered with the master shoemakers about wages. Too low by far the wages had been, growled the fellows on the hill-top. "There shall none come into the town to serve for that wages within a twelvemonth and a day, and we woll have an harme or a legg of hym, except they will take an othe, as we have doon." Can you see any marked difference between that group of idle men on the hill-top, with their threats of pulling off the arms or legs of any one who takes their jobs, and methods still employed by other groups of idle men today-men who neither will work themselves nor allow any one else to work where they should? The "labor problem" is one of the most ancient that we still have up for solution, and it will not be solved by force or by violence or by injustice of any sort on one side or the other. It will be solved when every man who works gives as much as he can, and when every man who hires pays as much as he can for the work; in other words, when every man does unto every other man exactly what he would wish to have every other man do to himself. A How Would You Close Life's Day? POET of Nebraska, John G. Neihardt, under the heading: "Let Me Live Out My Years," gives us this in The Quest: Let me live out my years in heat of blood! Let me die drunken with the dreamer's wine! Let me go quickly, like a candle-light And grant that when I face the grisly Thing, Does this way of closing the day of life appeal to you? I frankly own that it leaves me cold. It overlooks what seems to me to be the sweetest and most precious moments that can come to any of us-moments of blessed rest and spiritual refreshment in the twilight; moments when memory brings us in review the days that are gone with their burden of happiness and their purifying, strengthening and softening sorrows; moments of calm reflection and meditation; moments when the soul drinks anew the sweetest that it has taken from life and looks unperturbed and ready into whatever may be beyond. Would you close your life's day at noon, or just as the stars come out? Would you be like a candle snuffed out when its flame is brightest, or would you prefer to say with John Burroughs: "Growing old is a kind of letting go. The morning has its delights and its enticements, AUGUST, 1921 THE VALVE WORLD 271 the noon has its triumphs and satisfactions, but there are a charm and a tranquillity and a spiritual uplift about the close of the day that belong to neither." I realize that in this matter of closing life's day we have no choice, but this need not keep us from hoping that we may be allowed to close it as befits beings who are supposed to set greater store on the things of the soul and of the mind than on the things of the body. Give me the twilight; the quiet of the evening; the beckoning of the distant stars; the sweet solace of memory; the golden nuggets of meditation; the steadfast faith in good; the unafraidness that will carry me exultingly and confidently to the farthest confines of the universe; the unfaltering trust that lets me "wrap the drapery of my couch about me, and lie down to pleasant dreams." COMM Race Hatred and the Golden Rule OMMENTING on the recent race riots that have heaped further disgrace upon this republic, the editor of one negro weekly paper says: "Among the remedies proposed as a cure are, new legislation, strict and impartial law-enforcement, unionization of the negroes, and the Golden Rule." Why put the Golden Rule last? Put it first, and there will be no need for any other remedy. For without the full action of the Golden Rule all the legislation and law-enforcement and unionization that could be piled up from now till doomsday would not effect the desired cure. The Sovereign Balm of Humor O me one of the most cheering and most hopeful assurances of continued cordial relations between the people of the United States and of Great Britain is given by the attitude of the two leading Anglo-Saxon humorous periodicals-Life, in America, and Punch, in England. After a week of reading in the newspapers about all sorts of agitation and loud talking and raucous threatening and wild jabbering and senseless drivel on both sides of the water, how refreshing to open the leaves of Life and Punch and see there the friendly and understanding smile, hear there the hearty laughter, read there the sentiments of tolerance and friendliness, of cordiality and genuine brotherhood. There Uncle Sam cracks his joke with John Bull, and John Bull sits down to a little friendly game with Uncle Sam, and the joke carries the essence of understanding and sympathy, and the game enlists our interest and invites our hearty co-operation. Humor is a sovereign balm for many of our fancied ills, and so long as we can laugh and smile with Life and Punch—and the laugh and the smile will do us a world of good-we can afford to view without alarm the frantic efforts of malcontents to make Uncle Sam and John Bull quit joking and playing and take to pulling hair. Universal Physical Training The Fess-Capper Physical Education Bill received scant attention in the short session of Congress and its promotors have still to look ahead for its success, yet the bill has many good points. It proposes that the Federal Government shall pay one half the expense of training and employing physical directors for schools, including medical examiners and nurses. The states are required to meet the other half of the expense and to organize and conduct their own programmes independently and without Federal interference. There is, naturally, at a time when Congress is being urged to reduce appropriations, some objection to the bill on the ground of unnecessary expense, yet the ten million dollars called for will not be spent wastefully if it does what is proposed. All persons between the ages of six and eighteen years are to benefit from the bill. The Fess-Capper Bill is planned for boys and girls alike, that they may be healthy when the duties of maturity fall upon them. Furthermore, this bill works not only to the advantage of the physical welfare of every child, but also will make it possible for a larger percentage of our boys to enter the army in case of necessity than were able to do so during the World War. The bill does not interfere with "states' rights," as has been charged, for it specifically states that the physical education programmes shall be conducted independently by the states in accordance with their own laws. Another criticism of the bill has been advanced by various anti-medical groups who base their objections on the grounds that the bill would compel the physical examination of the children against the expressed desires of the parents. This objection will probably be entirely eliminated by the inclusion of a provision preventing this interpretation. The Fess-Capper Bill is not one that will attract a great deal of popular interest, and yet its effects might easily be so far-reaching, so constructive that Congress can hardly be urged too strongly to act favorably upon it.-World's Work. A Safety-First Measure When two or more boilers are connected to a common header each boiler should be protected with a non-return valve. As a safety-first measure this is a necessity. Such a valve will automatically cut out the boiler on which it is placed in the event of a tube bursting, thereby reducing the pressure and preventing the steam from the head from flowing into the boiler on which the accident occurred. -Power. Prosperity and the Ten Commandments Business prosperity depends upon the rightness of the man who does business, whether as merchant or manufacturer, or banker, or employee. So declares no less an authority than Roger W. Babson, head of the Babson Statistical Organization. In a recent address in New York Mr. Babson told how, in examining the statistics of business changes, he tried to find the underlying causes, and came to the unescapable conclusion, first, "that a period of depression is the result of the unrighteousness, dishonesty, extravagance, and inefficiency which develop in the latter half of a period of prosperity; and, secondly, that a period of prosperity is the reaction from the righteousness, industry, integrity, and thrift which develop in the latter half of a period of depression." In Mr. Babson's mind: "It is not railroads, steamships, or factories which cause our prosperity; it is not bank clearings, foreign trade, or commodity prices which give us good business. All these things are mere thermometers that register the temperature of the room. Prosperity is based on those fundamental qualities of faith, temperance, service, and thrift, which are the products of religion. The fundamentals of prosperity are the Ten Commandments." And therefore, he continues, as quoted in the press: "The future of American business depends on the developing of the soul of the man and upon again permeating labor, capital, and management with integrity, loyalty, and a desire to serve. The need of the hour is not more salesmen, or more foremen, or more technical men, but the need of the hour is to get employers and wage-workers to give their hearts to God. Business depressions can be avoided, but only by directing the minds of your people to the need of integrity, industry, and thrift. Business conditions can be changed for the better only as man's attitude toward life changes." Soft Disc Globe and Angle Valves give the best service on air lines. A Water Relief Valve for hot water should be so ordered. Crane Exhibit, National Association of Master Plumbers Convention, Grunewald Hotel, New Orleans T HE Field Museum of Natural History, recently opened to the public, is one of the really noteworthy buildings of the world. It stands in all its imposing size and simple grandeur at the south end of Grant Park, Chicago, and close to the shore of Lake Michigan. The building is constructed of Georgia and Vermont marble, with a frontage of 750 feet facing the north, and a depth of 350 feet. It is four stories high. The main room or nave, is known as Stanley Field Hall. It is about the width of the building, and extends to the roof with a grand stairway at the south end. The natural history objects in the museum are arranged and displayed on the various floors to make them most accessible to visitors. This magnificent building was provided for in the will of the late Marshall Field. Its cost has been in the neighborhood of $7,000,000, and while its foundations go down to an unyielding part of the earth, every foot of the surface on which it stands, and that part of park immediately surrounding it, has been made up with countless loads of earth, taken chiefly from excavations in the city. |