THE BATTALION
T
we have reason to believe he is,
gives a truthful sketch of the pro
fessional vagabond.
“A Defense of Purism in Speech,”
by Leila Sprague Learned, should al
so be noted. Mrs. Learned evidently
wishes to live up to her name, and
so proceeds to a defense of language
bound by form. No doubt the purists
need defense, and possibly Mrs.
Learned is the one to defend them,
but why should her defense take the
form of a grammatical handbook?
She advances few arguments in sup
port of her statements, and those
that she does advance are not par
ticularly forceful. Her essay is of
value because it arouses discussion,
but it is not very helpful to the
cause she supports.
Taken altogether, or taken indi
vidually, the essays are good reading
and treat of timely and pertinent
subjects. Most of them are very well
written, and all are above the or
dinary. The “fish” this year should
thank Mr. Thomas and Mr. Morgan
for giving them a book that they
can read and enjoy, as well as one
that teaches them.
WILLIAM O. JONES—’32.
PLATO’S AMERICAN REPUBLIC.
By Douglas Woodruff
(Reviewed by H. C. Givens, Jr.)
Socrates, reincarnated by Douglas
Woodruff in his “Plato’s American
Republic,” is seated on the pavement
in Athens. Around him are gathered
his friends, listening with rapt at
tention as he tells of his American
lecture tour and what he observed
while in this, to him, strange coun
try.
What infinite possibilities of hu
mor the situation possesses and
what an opportunity for the author,
speaking through Socrates, to crit
icise American life. He has suc
ceeded in both particulars and writ
ten a witty little book, replete with
pertinent criticisms of America.
Socrates believes that a new god
has been erected by the Americans;
a god who demands not goodness or
quality as a measure of faith, but
only quantity. They call this god
“Progress.” It is worshipped by all
100% Americans.
Certain precepts of this new deity
are contrary to old established ideals,
but these ideals are rapidly disap
pearing. In fact it was necessary
that they disappear before the new
god could ascend to the throne.
The break down of these ideals
may have in some cases been a
good thing, but in others the re
sults have been anything but bene
ficial, and it is the latter that Soc
rates calls to the reader’s atten
tion.
The former idealistic conception
of government was that it existed for
the benefit of the people. But un
der the new conditions it is no long
er true. Socrates claims it is now
administered for the benefit of the
manufacturers, who exert a virtual
control in the name of and for the
sake of “Progress.”
They exert this control through
public officers elected by the people,
but a people who are “conditioned”
to vote in the way the manufacturers
want, by the lavish use of propa
ganda, paid for by them in the form
of donations to the campaign funds
of the favored party.
It might seem strange that public
opinion could be created in this man
ner, but when it is considered that
nearly everybody is a follower of
the god “Progress” it becomes un
derstandable. The great mass of
people are so busy being “progress
ive” they have no time for anything
else. As a result, they obtain most
of their opinions from outside sourc
es. And furnishing these opinions is
the function of propaganda.
Long years ago there was a quaint
idea, held by the merchants, that
no one should be forced into buy
ing anything he did not want. Now,
with mass production, which might
be defined as the producing of more
goods than there would, under ordi
nary conditions, be a demand for,
people are fooled, cajoled, and of
ten forced into buying things they
frequently have no use for and don’t
want.
In education Socrates seems to see
the greatest change from old ideals
to new. The old aim of education was
knowledge, now it is information.
And there is a world of difference
between the two terms.
Seemingly, the chief function of
modern education is to fill the stu
dents with a mass of poorly related
Local Smoker
Learns Bitter
Lesson Abroad
New York,
March 13, 1928
Larus & Bro. Co.,
Richmond, Va.
Gentlemen:
I have used Edgeworth Smoking
Tobacco for the past twenty-five years.
Two years ago I took my trusty briar
along on a trip abroad, intending to
revel in the delights of the famous
mixtures in London. I confess that I
did not carry along with me any of the
little blue tins of Edgeworth. But the
joke was on me. I went back to Edge-
worth, only this time I had to pay 45c
for a 15c tin of Edgeworth!
Incidentally, on a trip through
England and later through Ireland, I
was surprised to find the wide distribu
tion and ready sale of Edgeworth in
Great Britain. A frequent and famil
iar sign in Dublin, Cork and other
cities in Ireland was a white streamer
announcing a new shipment of Edge-
worth. To make such a conquest in
the home of smoking tobacco must be
very gratifying to your house.
Sincerely,
J. B. Kelly
Edgeworth
Extra High Grade
Smoking Tobacco
F I THAT’S the telephone^Hello” in Madrid. In London, it’s <c Are
JL you there?” But in many foreign countries, Americans find a
universal language in the telephone salutations. It’s good old
“Hello”—a subtle tribute to the fact that the telephone is an
American invention.
And so it is with elevator service. Even though they say^Diga”
in Spain, the architects of the magnificent new Madrid Telephone
Building unhesitatingly said “Otis” because Spain demanded the
last word in elevators. You will find in Madrid the same type of Sig
nal Control Elevators that are now installed in those monumental
telephone buildings in America, in New York, Cleveland, St. Louis
and San Francisco.
OTIS ELEVATOR COMPANY
Offices in All Principal Cities of the World