Show howe about age of reason great americans jeuck uck by ED HOWE 0 1833 1933 bell syndicate service CARELESS people had a specially terrible warning during the depression pre salon everywhere one hears the careful did much better although every one was injured the same story comes from the california earthquake those who built strong houses r realized that they lived in an earthquake qu ake section suffered much less than the occupants of houses carelessly thrown together and neglected after they rebuilt we there seems no doubt that carelessness Is 19 one of the very worst of our human sins when the age of reason arrives it it ever does we will admit that the man who goes about turning off unnecessary lights left burning by careless people Is a better man than the mean persons who left them burning because the expense Is not charged to them we will naso like better the string saver few families keep a supply of new string or OP hand when string Is needed it usually comes from askving a saving woman who has a ball in the drawer of the kitchen table A man asks we me who in your opinion are the fifteen greatest living americans I 1 have written him I 1 believe they are comparatively unknown men some of them possibly hidden away in small towns or on farms most alost of the noted men of the present have been called to washington to advise president hoover or president roosevelt in the present emergency not one of them measured up to real greatness in the recommendations I 1 have seen in print my aly correspondent also wishes me to prepare a list of fifteen of the greatest americans in all our history I 1 have only three clearly in mind benjamin franklin would head the list followed by alexander hamilton and john adams if urged to add other names possibly I 1 should select john D rockefeller sr J P morgan the elder and thomas A edison 1 have never believed george washington was truly great and doubt lincoln was wai we have never had a great soldier except possibly some unknown man who never had a bli chance ance measured by world standards we have never had a great literary man wallace Wn lince grandfather of the present secretary of agriculture ri was a country parson and farmer and came very near greatness if an infallible list of the fifteen greatest americans living or lead dead could be bb prepared few would be widely known perhaps two tivo thirds of them not known at all I 1 do not believe one professional politician would be on the list several business men might m make aloe it the manner in which WP we marched cheering into the present american ruin and the weakness we displayed in efforts to get out have greatly discouraged me as to american greatness 0 0 no little fairy attends any man to bring him good luck no little devil attends any man to bring him bad luck in the course of a year or a life what baseball players call the good and bad breaks are about even good breaks have come to all of us ns frequently and we have not taken proper advantage of them frequently we all fall to handle bad breaks as well as we might this Is the truth and I 1 know it well but what I 1 believe Is I 1 am the un luckless luc klest man in the world I 1 came to allaan fla this winter disgusted because hannah the colored woman we employ a at home never en my room without putting the windows down if I 1 had find them up or putting them up if I 1 had them down I 1 have been disgusted dl dil winter in miami because nancy at the apartment house where I 1 live does the same thing I 1 was walking on the streets lately with a white woman from froin indiana she learned bossy ways ways ns af a school teacher when young the tilt of my hat fiat win brim suit her so she reached over and changed it occasionally sio nally not often I 1 rebel and said to her put that hat brim back where you found it she Is probably telling around now that I 1 nm am no gentleman but she did it I 1 have never suited stilted women always there la Is something about me they want to fix As soon as a fool proposes adoth another or plan for more human betterment than Is possible the people should somehow have the power to say to him now now weve tried that and force him back to work the certain thin thing seems to be we cannot afford to try all these plans os ns we have been doing some t thousands hou sands of years to the violent disturbance of industry and deace |