OCR Text |
Show False Ideas Stick After an erroneous statement has been repeated often enougn It js next to impossible to eradicate it from the popular mind. For many year's tne question was asked why the addition of a fish to a pail of water would not add to the weight of the bucket and its contents. Several ingenious explanations ex-planations were offered, but tht real reason could not be agreed upon. Finally some inquisitive skeptic weighed a bucket of water and after adding a 5-pound fish weighed it again. It welgned just five pounds more than it did before adding the fish. The question, therefore, was shown to be based upon a false assumption. A similar situation is pointed out by the Christian Science Monitor in answer to the question why the younger generation Is so much inclined in-clined to crime. Thirteen cities reporting re-porting to the United States Children's Chil-dren's Bureau showed that in nine of them juvenile delinquency de-creasd, de-creasd, while an Increase was noted in only four. Likewise, it is popularly supposed that crime in Chicago is more prevalent pre-valent than ever before. Yet actual ac-tual statistics show that crime since 1915 in that city has not increased in proportion to the increase in population. So, as Josh Billings once said, "It's just as well not to know so much, as to know so blamed much that ain't so." |