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Show 'i'v J.SCCFIELD HOWE, ynSSIDSNT, t? Metropolian dsualty Insurance Company of KJ rJli.: CANNED OriNIONS Who lins nut liMrned wil.h dismay to the man who announces with evident pridu and iinallcrahli: convifiiun, "Tlic. politics that were good enough lor my father are good enough for uie !" Before such false ideas of loyalty, su' h lifeless opinions sealed in a hermetic coiihiiiH-r inlo which no "ray of illumination cam penetrate, one can ttnly feel pily ami resignation. Yet how many pass through life burdened wilh "all sorts of dead ideas and lifeless old beliefs," opinions inherited from bygone social systems, tastes and faiths of their nnccsh rs, never stopping to inquire whether new found trulh has not made their antique opinions as desiccated and unlit to live w ilh as a mummy I The power lo make life a belter thing by assimilating fresh ideas based on j the discoveries that science daily offers is a distinctively human achievement, achieve-ment, denied to the lower creatures whose unchanging instinct serves them only in the narrow groove into which hey. are born. Does not .that man sell Jus birthright for less than nothing who neglects to exercise his hard-won ability to form reasoned conclusions, remaining satisfied with the ready-made canned opinicms of his family, his associates asso-ciates c his favorite newspaper? , The ability to see life from modern aspects, to discard old and to" form new convictions, far from being inconsistent, shows that we are alive, sensitive sensi-tive to reality, quick to react to unaccustomed incentives. At no previous period of history have canned, opinions been so indefensible, since the accelerated pace of our progress makes the impossible' of yesterday . the commonplace of today. It Is sad to realize I hat opinions which are the seeds that beget action, may be utterly divorced irom reality, crude survivals from the dust heap of man's errors, yet may be reverenced as traditions, upheld as social standards, prrmittnl to mar the lives of innocent children not yet old enough to think for themselves. In life, in business, .'n human relations, to discard all conclusions that fail the test of today's enlightenment, to arrive at our convictions by honest thouglii fn;e from bjas, marks the tremendous difference between real thought and canned opinions. The open mind of our Lincoln who said, "I shall try to correct errors when shown to be crrons, and I shall adopt new views as fast as they appear to be true view s," shows a humility and tolerance that cannot fall to be an inspiration to all who tliink for themselves. |