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} { WINNETKA WEEKLY TALK, SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1920 Winnetka Weekly Talk ISSUED SATURDAY OF EACH WEEK by ; The Lake Shore Publishing Company 1222 Central Ave. Wilmette, Iil. Telephone ........... ... Wilmette 1920 Winnetka Office Telephone Winn. 388 SUBSCRIPTION. ........ 2.00 A YEAR Strictly in advance All communications must be aec- eompanied by the name and address of the writer. Articles for publication should reach this office by Thursday afternoon te insure appearance in eurrent issue. Resolutions of condolence, cards of thanks, obituary peotry, notices of entertainments or other affairs where an admittance charge will be made or a collection taken, will be charged for at regular advertising rages. Entered in the postoffice at Winnetka, Illinois, as mail matter of the second elass, under the act of March 3, 1879. SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1920 As It Was In The Beginning One does not think of newspaper reporters, or those whose position is of the official editorial circle, spend- ing much time in perusal of Holy Writ. But Frank J. Davis, one of America's great newspaper men, said that he knew of "no book which served the newspaper writer so well as the Bible." : The Bible is, as no other book is, an exposition of human nature. One finds there a telling example to fit any occasion. For instance: One could ask no better illustration of the innate male opposition to the loosing of woman from the bonds that kept her within the sphere of her own home than the story of that King of the Persians, in the Bible story call- ed Ahasueris, in history Darius, who summoned his favorite wife to ap- pear before him and she declined the invitation. The king's anger waxed hot, naturally, but not only the king's but his chamberlains were wroth and one and all recommended to him to let it be known throughout the king- dom that because Vashti had refused to obey her lord's commands she had been removed from her position as his queen and that royal estate given to one more worthy, to the end "that all the wives shall give to their hus- band's honor, both great and small." What better argument for the good common sense of the principle of ad- vertising than this? Women through- out the kingdom which reached from "India to Ethiopia" should, by fearn- ing of the result of the indiscreet ex- ercise of undue independence on the part of the Queen, be encouraged to | forego any such notions of their own. Doubtless, it paid to advertise. The conspicuous quotability of the Bible, as of the plays of Shakespeare, is due to this one fact. Both are so true to human nature, both reflect so accurately the very same traits that men and women possess today, that they are applicable to the conditions of the twentieth century as they were to those of the tithe in which they were written. They cannot help be- ing a source of inspiration and a very present help to the man of the woman who would bring a message or tell a tale for the common man. The Cure-All Attorney General Palmer promised when he was in Chicago making that investigation into the high cost of living that the next three months would see a decrease in the price of food materials sufficient to be notic- ed in the household bills. The three months have almost passed and the situation, far from being any better than it was, is worse. We are talking a good deal and calling desperately upon the govern- ment for relief from the conditions that so sorely oppress the poor and the moderately well-to-do but we make little or no effort to apply one cure that everybody recognizes and recommends, the exercise of all pos- sible economy and the elimination of waste, to the end that the shortage of production may be made up for somewhat in the lessened demand. It is beyond the power of the housewife to increase the production of all those materials that enter into the daily life of the people. The question of strikes, of stimulated pro- duction, of increasing the efficiency | what is within their range. { | f of workers, of longer hours of labor are beyond her, but within her hands lies the other weapon to be used against the present economic condi- tions. She is, however, unfortun- ately, as reluctant to apply her power in the way that is open to her as the workers of the country are to adopt a schedule of work that would help to make good the loss in production that has been occasioned by the war. Our case is in our own hands, whether we be producers or consum- ers, and the great majority of Am- ericans are both. We will neither increase production nor decrease con- sumption. We will but persist in our wrong ways and cry out against the difficulty of our fate and the oppres- sion of others. The Attorney General missed his guess. He neatly passed on his re- sponsibility, without his authority, to the women's organization that stood ready to take it up. But he is not responsible that the cost of living has not fallen, as he foretold it would. The women of the Council of Defense are not responsible ex- cept individually, if they are not do- ing all that they might do to increase production and to decrease consump- tion. It is a task that the whole people must undertake, that time alone can contribute to. It is a case in which public sentiment must be created, old habits discarded and new formed, old standards put aside and new raised. It is a task worthy the support of the most ambitious to serve in a big way. Awakening From Slumber It takes a long time to awaken a slumbering public, but there are rea- sons to believe that the slumbering people of the United States are be- ginning to stir in their sleep and that they will in good time open their eyes and look intelligently upon 'When that time comes we shall see how quickly there will be the adoption of a budget system by which to check the expenditure of the public funds and effect a businesslike administra- tion of the biggest business in the country. The idea is gaining ground that the administration of the government is not done by an omnipotent, rather mythical, "Uncle Sam." People are | beginning to see that the transactions that go on in Washington involving the expenditure of the public funds are no different from the transac- tions that form the business of great enterprises under private They are beginning in greater proportion to government of the comparable to a of which they stockholders, meet ex- financial management. greater and see that the United great States is corporation themselves are the eligible to assessment to penses, and eligible, as well, to re- ceive the benefits that accrue from wise administration of the business. An Easy Problem A learned medical authority of Loon- don has discovered that a dog can imbibe twice as alcohol as a man and still maintain the normal use of his legs. It shouldn't have required a great deal of research to establish so sim- ple a fact. A dog has just twice as many legs and quite as much intelli- gence as the human being who per- mits the management of his legs to get beyond him through any self-in- flicted cause. much HOUSEWIVES--ATTENTION The special sale, starting today, of a great quantity of slightly damaged merchandise at the R. H. Schell & Co. dry goods store at 1165 Wilmette ave- nue, Wilmette, offers a great oppor- tunity to resident to lay in a good supply of garments for Spring and Summer. The goods, for the greater part, weer only slightly damaged in last week's fire at the Cox building. NOTICE The office of the Win- netka Weekly Talk is - now located at 556 Center Street with Mr. George F. Gonsalves. Doubtful Glum and Cheery Glad They Discuss the new school from Kenosha HE: train ; rumbled into the station. : Cheery Glad and Doubtful Glum climbed aboard. For a few moments these good friends, but temperamental oppo- sites, immersed themselves in the world's news. And then, as though moved by the same thought, they laid down their papers. Win- netka news had triumph- ed over the world's. "Still worried over that new school proposition?" asked Glad, in his usual optimistic tone. "Well, the points you made last week were all right," replied doubtful Glum, "but I can't see the proposition yet. Those busses, for one thing. How can you possibly keep the kids from rough- housing in them? Why, a bunch of them will be killed." Cheery Glad laughed. "Why, Glum," he said. "Isn't it reasonable to suppose that a teacher who can maintain law and order in a class- room can also do so in a bus! School busses are being operated today all over the country." Glum pondered a moment, while his eyes roved out of the window. "Well, maybe you're right," he ad- mitted, "but will there be a second bus for the children who miss the first?" "Absolutely not," snapped Glad, his face assuming a mocked seri- ousness. "You see, Glum, the chauffeur will probably drop four or five cylinders in the ditches along the way, some cbld water may get into the carburetor, they may have a dozen blowouts and a puncture, and by the time they get to school the engine may naturally peter out from sheer fatigue. Two trips then, would be quite impossible." WAVE of crimson surged over Glum's face. He realiz- ed that he had advanced a picayun- ish objection. But his sincere in- terest in school itself in his next question. "Since there is almost sure to be a junior high day, why not wait and let New Trier build our departmental school?" eed: Glad, if T"the Convention sub- school some "Fine," 's Constitutional mits a provision to that effect and if the people accept the new con- stitution and if the legislature passes the enabling laws and if such a .law provides for junior high schools in the present high school system and if New Trier Township decides to have one. Waiting for those five 'ifs', I am afraid, be like waiting for the Mexican 'manana'--the 'to- morrow' that never comes. Don't you think the proper housing of Winnetka's crowded and growing school population is too serious a matter to be disposed of in the careless, proscrastinating, Mexican style? And if the junior high school ever does come, our new building will not be at all wasted." For a moment Glum was lost in brown-study, conscious only of the rush and clamor of the train. Then up flashed another objection. "Well, almost all the children of Winnetka go to high school soon- er or later. Why not wait until they get there for their depart- work?" will mental «More waiting, eh?" queried Glad. "Waiting at that age for the interesting kind of work possible only with specialized teachers usually means impatience and dis- couragement with all further schooling. Many who would otherwise gain an education, will matters showed a second time --because of this very waiting-- become afflicted with the 'jobitis' fever. Do you want Winnetka children to become loop-hounds at the age of 14?" Glum couldn't answer, and for a moment the conversation was Commer ---- punctuated by the squealing of an brakes. Steel gripped steel, and as the train groaned to a stop, a terror-stricken ook flashed across Glum's face. "Don't be scared," advised Glad. "We'll all live through it." LOWLY Glum composure. He point of attack. "Say, Glad," he said, "Why talk about the new playground when it is covered with snow all Winter and with water all Spring?" regained his saw a new "Yes, you are right agreed Glad. Playgrounds should be abolished. No school should have them. A playground is fit for only the Esquimaux and the beaver, unless by special arrangement with the Weather Man, snow and rain could be entirely omitted. But perhaps, Glum, before you con- demn the Elm Street playground, you ought to ask Bobbie and Dick, Grace and Esther, whether snow and water that may bother us on the new site for a week or two are reasons for doing away with play- grounds altogether." "That's all very well," continued Glum. His doubt took a new at- tack. "But would it not be far better to spend more time on the 3 R's' and less on playgrounds?" Glad raised his voice so as to be heard above the whistle blast from the engine-- single, deep, vibrant. Optimistic as he was, his patience was almost exhausted. "You were just arguing that there wouldn't be much chance to play on the because of snow and But let's face your latest question. The philosopher who said 'all work and no play make Jack a dull boy' was a philoscpher indeed, 'and a physiologist-psy- chologist to boot. Ask any doc- tor what ALL study will do for a child, aside from making him a first-class dub. Recreation speeds up the mental processes, sharpens the wits. And that was proved long before Queen Isabella hocked the crown jewels." "But," inisisted Glum, children have the advantages of play with half as .auch playground space?" "Why not throw them all into a gunny-sack and shuffle 'em up? They would get enough exercise that way," laughed Glad. "Or maybe they could take their exer- cise on a couple of postage stamps, or dance on the point of a needle to give them poise and balance. Yes, an ample playground, I am afraid, would give the boys a chance to play baseball, soccer and other manly games instead of the polite drop-the-handkerchief, ring. grounds water. "can't matter around-the-rosy and tiddly-winks." Glum was fast being cornered. "Well," he offered rather sheep- ishly, "Isn't it more important to have the children near home than to - bother about large play- grounds?" "Ive got a scheme," suggested Glad, now ful- ly warmed up on the sub- ject. "Suppose the School Board buys up Winnet- ka's available supply of muslin and contracts for an additional 500 yards apron-strings and, at the age of twelve or thirteen, hitch every child to its mother. Now, Glum, be reasonable. The Boardof Education doesn't believe in children running wild, but does be- lieve children must learn lessons of self-reliance before they start at High school." Glum ignored the thrust. "But Glad," 'he "Won't the children fill up on sweets and other unwhole- some things so far from home?" argued. "Perhaps they will" ; agreed Glad, still good-humorelly. "And there may be bears and wolves and 'hob-cats in the woods and Canadian lynxes that will eat them up on their way to school as they did little Red Riding Hood's grandmother, And then too, the lightning may be fiercer out in that neck of the woods, It may leap out of the sky and elec- trocute every mother's son of them. Or the bogy man, or the Pied Piper of Hamlin--or both-- may come along and seduce the children to their destruction. But seriously, Glum, don't you think our Board of Education is capable of regulating matter's like that?" "How many children will a bus hold?" asked poor Glum. He re- verted to his pet transportational gloom. All others had completely failed him. "One." answered Glad. "Just one to each bus. Because that kid will feel so big with the import- ance of the ride, the prospect of the big airy school at the end of it, the ample playground and all the other advantages which will stimulate his boyish heart, he will swell up so big with the pure joy of it that there will be room for no one else." UT a different kind of gloom . just then appeared--the gloom of the Chicago train shed. "By George, we're in town," suggested Glad. Hope I have cleared thing up for you, Glum." "Well, I don't know, it's a pretty big plan. I wish I could feel as cheerful as you seem to, about it, Mr. Glad," replied Doubtful Glum. "Your trouble is just this," Glad replied. "You see the same school that I do. But your glasses have the wrong shade. Throw away your blue tinted pair and put on mine. They're rose colored, I suppose. But after all, if you keep your feet on the solid ground, the world turns out about the way you look at it. Come, now, isn't it so?" The make moral is due brief. Let us allowance for each Doubtful Glum we encounter and in all public questions practice tha , good-natured patience of Mr. Cheery Glad. Thi; advertiseme:t is paid from a fund specially subscribed by f iends of the new school. from Uncle Sam. Then' let us make a few thousand a