Show J I PROGRESS OR DECAY J 9 By ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM In Colliers Collier's Weekly I I have had three things happen to me recently which have set me I thinking about the spiritual side of ot American life I want to tell you about them and see what you think they indicate The other morning I was looking out of my window across the street into Central park which is my New York front yard and saw five women scattered here and there along the walk each one leading a poodle They appeared to be healthy and robust specimens of American womanhood i I also recently went Into a shoe factory thinking I should see men making shoes But I 1 saw nothing of the sort Instead I found several thousand men each one making one forty- forty fifth of a shoe Not a single man had an on art arta ora or ora a craft or anything he could love loveto loveto loveto to be loyal loral to to Again recently my wife gave me methe methe methe the following from the tho morning paper A former Follies beauty widow of ot a wealthy publisher married again to a picture star being sued by the wife of a business man on the charge of alienating his affections affections is engaged to marry malry an actor as soon as the courts call off her second marriage and the actors actor's second wife divorces him while her husband a picture star who married married mar mar- ried ned her after atter his divorce from a famous model is reported engaged to a vaudeville headliner whom he will ivill marry as soon as she di divorces divorces dip her husband a broker bloker who divorced a society girl to elope with her It would certainly be a wise child should there be one one who who could identify his own father or or mother out of such a mess amess amess mess of cal pottage would our fathers think v about all this Would Would they say itI It I was progress or or decay 1 The central question which these three thre In nM n hn It to mv mY mind Is this Has las not science built bull I for IU man 1 oi oj i complex that it has cut him loose from his spiritual anchorage eo so O comp complex ex that he is losing his old instinctive loves passions and loyalties Man evolved as a fighter and hunter As Professor Protessor George Patrick Patrick Patrick Pat Pat- rick of ot Iowa university has said We are descended fro from the menI men I who loved lo to fight tight and from the women who loved lo bab babies es There j Isn't much chance now for fighting I and not much room for raising ca- ca bies Our ancestors also loved to shape their spears and boats into things of both service and beauty and themselves preserved by loyalty to tt the group But Dut science cities and machinery while they i have given man speed comfort and ease have hae robbed him of three things things contact contact with his neighbor his sense of ownership of ot othIs his product and the inspiration of the craftsman Plainly the task of the future is not to give men more wealth and luxury they luxury they have enough enough but but to togIe give gI them spiritual compensations and satisfactions for their old adventurous adventurous adventurous ad ad- venturous and instinctive loves lo loyalties and desires What is needed i is b some great new trends in our fund fundamental mental tion It may be some sone reader has some suggestions as to what that education should be It must have havethe havethe havethe the adventurous element in It the aesthetic element in It It and the moral moral moral mo mo- ral and religious element in it But Bute e we we must make an education and an industrial system that fits man Instead of tr trying as we tia have ve been doing to make man fit tit our Industry industry industry indus Indus- try and education Otherwise we shall never secure industrial an anI and I social socia peace Copyright by Colliers Collier's |