Culture

810 IMPROVEMENT ERA

Our tobaco bill for tbe year was far in excess of $2,000,000,- 000, according to figures given out at Washington, D. C. With — the accessories of the tobacco business fire losses, salaries of salesmen, pipes, holders, boxes, spittoons, loss of wages for la- — bor due to tobacco illness, etc. the expenditure would easily reach $3,000,000,000. Allowing $3,000 to each home, our tobacco money would build these one million homes, in just one year. It is an outrage upon American common sense that it is not done. Every boy and girl beneath the Stars and Stripes has a right to vigorously protest against such conditions, if not for themselves, then for the sake of the boys and girls who live in crowded and often unsanitary quarters. This latter situation is given by experts as one of the reasons for the deplorable vice conditions prevailing in many of our cities. Common sense should say: "Cut out tobacco and build homes." Again, are we doing the youth of our land an injustice in spending only $1,000,000,000 a year to maintain our free public schools, while three billion goes for the enemy of the body, mind and soul? The mental development of our boys and girls has been halted in many cities because of a lack of funds to pay teachers. When a great nation spends three times as much to tear down its boyhood and girlhood, its manhood and woman- hood, as it does to develop the mind, the body and the soul of its citizens, it is time to call a halt. Greater nations than ours have gone down in ruin. It is time that Americans should see things straight. Oakland, Calif.

Culture

Oh what a great man is he who is a cultured man. He is one who can adapt himself to, or fit into, the different environments with which he comes in contact. He is one who is constantly making beautiful the simple things of life; that is, he can appreciate the importance of the common and simple things of life, as well as the cultured ones. He seeks the importance of the small and seemingly insignificant things, as they relate to the machinery of life. A cultured man can see high art in a modest portrayal of the common things of life, as well as in the portrayal of the uncommon, or brilliant things. In every-day life he is constantly noticing the importance that one part of the machinery of life has to all other parts. That is, if there were no bees there would be no flowers, if there were no flowers, there would be no air purifiers, and if there were no pure air there would be no life. Hence the unity and importance of all God's creation, whether great or small. r «y> Ida - • E. Virgil Cornia