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Show 4 Sin of Scli-Indulgcnce Ranks Fourth "Women Influence Jlen lo 31ako Display. Worship of rntorinl Success Great Fault. Lack of Respect for Intellect Is Frequent, Extravagance Is Third Besetting Fault, ISL II ' Mr. Average American what are 1 1; your weaknesses? I ' Do you ever stop to consider thera? I )' Are you a materialist, a worship- I cr of money? I Are you superficial? ' I ,; Arc you extravagant? I ' Are you self-indulgent? I ' Do you let your Lome life break I down? I Arc you shallow in religion?' JUJ, One hundred expert sUidcnts of fc human nature and life say you nrc ft all of theso things also several Je other things. I A remarkable symposium of repre- !: senlative Americans has been taken by Clayton Sedgwick Cooper, author, ' pastor, college secretary for the in ternational Y. M- C. A. Familiarity with every nook and corner of America and nearly every quarter of Europe put him in a po-; po-; sition to ask those men whose opin ions would bo authoritative to respond re-spond lo the question, "What do you j consider to bo the chief points of weakness in our contemporary American life?" EVE Klr SILVER LI XI XG HAS A CLOUD. In his book, "American Ideals," which contains the blunt fucts as seen by the "100," ho himself says: "Our idols have feet of clay. Our Oourls still meto limping justice. Our education drives itself into the grooves of money and the making of I a living rather than the building of a strong manhood and womanhood. We still fill the air of our modern $$-. Babylons with the strident' cries of l sensual satisfactions, and wo barter ! our birthright for a mess of pottage ; that only adds to our fleshly hunger and fails to feed our famishing souls," Does this author's stroko at your vulnerable point make you twist? Supposing ho had asked you this question! What would you have answered? an-swered? Naturally you would havo quietly attempted to survey your own weaknesses beforo answering. The 100 men who did tell what our national faults were generalized upon their wide acquaintances and intimacies. (Perhaps they havo hit your faults! No doubt they have como close to xe trails of character which you thought wcro hidden from the world. Anyway', in the symposium appears ap-pears America ' with tho "bluff" stripped off. It is tho first great attempt to solve our racial difficulties, to eliminate elim-inate our drawbacks by proclaiming them to tho world so that they may shrivel up and die out of shame. Bankers, poets, college presidents, editors, clergymen, millionaire capitalists, cap-italists, statesmen, farmers, publishers, publish-ers, philosophers and . high school professors all contribute to the diagnosis di-agnosis of our troubles. Liko expert physicians, they pave their findings and isolated tho various vari-ous germs that wear down )ur strength. Over one-fourth of them agreed that the dominance of money was tho curso of Americanism. One-fifth One-fifth of them agreed on the blame of superficiality One-sixth coincided in naming extravagance. Fifteen of the judges decided that complacency was a major fault; fourteen, lack of perspective; thirteen, lack of public responsibility. Other deficiencies in what we ought to bo were shallowness shallow-ness in religion, evasion of law, lack of independence, intemperance in liquor, etc. Aro women's weaknesses different than men's? Do you agree that the time-honored phrase, "Tho frailty of woman," is a just and true observation? observa-tion? The president of a 'large college for girls must havo had his opinion very largely modified by his association asso-ciation with the opposite sex and he states that American weakness lies in "laxness of honor, slackness of moral fiber when not on parade, willingness to shirk tho labor of honest detail in a word, a willingness willing-ness to dodge obligation." On the other side of the argument comes the decision of a secretary of tho Young Men's Christian Association Associa-tion in the "West, whose opinions come from intimacy with tho moro youthful generation of American manhood. "To mistako an outward veneer of pretense for a deep-rooted inner life. Too much time is given lo the hurry and bustle of life and not enough to its best values. "The homo and home life as such receives loo little attention for our own best good. Mistaking acquaintances acquaint-ances for friends underestimating the value of real friendship. Depending De-pending too much upon outside entertainment, en-tertainment, rather than trying to develop such a life as will mrtke ono's self good company for others as well as for one's self." Tho head of a large military academy acad-emy points out theso failures: "Mental "Men-tal superficiality as manifested by a lack of thoroughness in almost every ev-ery line of work, by the patronage of cheap literature, cheap music, degrading de-grading plays and the almost total eclipse of the inner man." Was he talking of men or of women? Judging from his position, wouldn't you say he meant the masculine) mas-culine) weaknesses? Ono authority who reports our failures has had experience with men and women in approximately the same ratio. As president of a university in California he stales this: "Our chief national failing is made up of a union of fussiness, nervousness, hurry; keeping up with the times;' reading the latest novel, seeing a little of everything, just enough to talk about it; general thinness duo to admiration of versatility; ver-satility; 'government' by bluff, a natural result of shallow equipment." equip-ment." The publisher must of necessity think constantly, keep his ear attuned at-tuned to the natural impulses, the desires, the cravings of both sexes. His prosperity depends upon his ability to print those things which striko the interest. Consequently his verdict is noteworthy: "A tendency tend-ency to subordinate cverytbing to making money and dancing, and to getting up societies for the reformation reforma-tion of everything." You might as well tako the summary sum-mary of your faults good uaturcdly, for every individual has his or her deficiencies. 31 EX VAIXEST OF ALL CREATURES. Every baseball player, they say, has his certain peculiar weakness at tho bat. Evcrr man, every woman has some flaw, some Tault in his character. Where is yours? Do you know? Do you believe that a true friend is he' "who knows your faults and stays off of them," or ho who candidly can-didly and sincerely gives you an anxious lip as to the faltering tip in your make-up? Every man would liko to seo himself him-self as others see him, but ho gets mad when others tell him how they sec him that is, he gets mad unless un-less the others do a nifty bit of lying; ly-ing; then he swells up and says, "You flatter me," but believes it all tho same. Of course, every man wants lo he-lievo he-lievo tho best about himself and to call tho worst the slander of jealous souls. A rare fellow is he who comes out Into the opeu and asks for a frank criticism of himself,, saying: "What's wrong with me, anyway? Whcro am I Uio feeblest?" a |