Show I On hi L BT Z OA O. O HAT Is this Pinchot affair an anyway a I 1 heard one WHAT W young oung man mau say to another the Other othel da day as be spread spra o open n a a newspaper In whose headlines Mr ii Ir and ana Mr Mr r. r Pinchot were prominently ent mentioned e Oh I don don't know g Some m kind odne of a fight about some ome lands somewhere an answered answered an- an the second young Toung man vaguely I haven't been following it at all Have you you al And did it ever er occur to you ou that It I was 05 your our duty to follow that and other things thing like it I Sometimes I hear people usually people usually young women women say say in tones tonES of evident pride I 1 almost read the never rad newspapers I do not think that I I. I a thing Citing to be at atal atall atall all al proud of I think that every er e man and woman in this land lad should read some things In the newspapers newspaper whether they read an anything else or not And by some things I mean me things like Ilka Ika the tile Pinchot Ballinger-Pinchot controversy I am afraid the t two 0 young men whose conversation I overheard o are altogether too to tn typical of the American newspaper reading public Present this public with Ith a large and Involved and more or less 1111 abstract qU question ques j. j tion ton like the Pinchot Ballinger-Pinchot controversy controversy contro contro- ver versy and it balks skips it for the description de do- of the lie latest thing In murderers or the interview with the latest novelty in defaulters doesn't try to to follow folIos it i. i By and by this abstract t question queston gets get unpleasantly unpleasant translated into terms of everyday e life the life the price of timber goes up or the government fostered monopoly brings on a tremendous coat coal cal strike and the public reads all al about abut these concrete things n avidly Idly If I it I. I would only do its reading In the first instance it I might not have to In the latter later How many people cared car to read and digest much of the tariff discussions When the information about the tariff is offered offend in tabloid form for In outlines or orIn orIn orin In headlines so 50 that he who runs may read they may give it I a little attention but when It I is presented in long paragraphs para pars graphs unbroken I by conversation most of them hem i promptly g t skip p it But later when the tariff begins to get In Its Is ork work and prices go up and there I is a meat boycott bocott then the shoe begins to pinch and the public begins to read every ever word about this concrete result of the abstraction which It Ignored lored so blithely a few months agoAn agoAn ago An ounce of prevention etc eta etc ns mis ma maybo may may- bo ho youve you've heard hear before and likewise an ounce of interest In the tariff would have been worth a pound of ot protest against higher prices an ounce of ot Interest In the Pinchot Ballinger-Pinchot Balner controversy will wi be b worth a pound of protest at shortage of ol coal or wood ten years year from now Are you ou glad or sort S1 sorry that you live lve In Ina Ina ina a a democrat democratic country countr where public opinIon opinion opinion ion whatever some people say Is a great power If I you are glad suppose you OU show it by reading in the newspapers the chronicles of the te Important things of the da day such s ch as a the Pinchot Ballinger-Pinchot controversy and making your part of the public opinion a valuable I one And ui if you o osom are sorry som suppose se you ou find finda a better country f 1 |