p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 39. (9/27/1905)

Newspaper Reading

By Christian Work

Newspaper Reading.—The press of to-day, especially in civilized countries, has become a vitalizing and essential part of the life of our times. That it has value even in the humblest and poorest of homes may be observed when, by pressure of circumstances, the household is obliged to retrench. Then the newspaper is often the last thing to be cut off. This dependence on the daily paper, which is born of a certain curiosity for an account of the latest happenings in the world, has its disadvantages as well as its advantages. The space of the daily is very largely given over to recording the things done by individuals, assemblies, and nations, a large proportion of which have only a temporary value, and one has only to reflect a short time to note the influence that reading of this kind must have on the average mind. It is often said that the excessive reading of newspapers makes unfit many minds for literature of a more substantial nature, but that is not the chiefest of its evils. Is it not true that newspaper reading tends to exaggerate in the mind the things of present value, and hinders that perspective which is so vital to sane thinking? A man is never living at his best until he can bring within his horizon some mental image of the future. There is a strong tendency in the present day to magnify out of all proportion our individual and national possessions, and the newspaper creates and fosters that tendency more than all other agencies combined.

EFFECT OF THE TOBACCO HABIT ON STUDENTS.

DR. HERBERT FISK, of the Northwestern University, believes he has gathered statistics which prove that the use of tobacco is incompatible with the use of brains. He declares that among his students scholarship is in adverse ratio to smoke, and adds:

The students who get low marks of course say it is not due to tobacco. A somewhat careful observation of facts has convinced us that it is tobacco. Last year not one of the boys who used tobacco stood in the first rank of scholarship. This has been the usual rule. One year, out of the thirty-three pupils in the first rank of scholarship, there was one user of tobacco. The largest percentage of tobacco users is found in the fifth rank of scholarship.

The God of "New Thought."

Ella Wheeler Wilcox is the seeress of "New Thought," or at least one of the seeresses. In a recent article she expresses very clearly what the god of "New Thought" is. Referring to Professor Dolbear's guess that each cubic inch of space contains an equivalent of a horse power, held in solution in some way by that tangible thing called "ether," Mrs. Wilcox proceeds to tell us that "this mysterious ocean of space is our mother." Therefore, clean out the mind, the engine, "and remember that you are a child of space, and that whatever you ask of that great mother shall be given you from the mansion of your Father." But "New Thought" has no personal Father-God. We need not stop to name the hundred conclusions which logically grow out of this.

Aiding Bossism.

By Editor

From a prominent labor journal we clip the following truthful item:

In America millions of men, nearly all able to read and write, have the right to vote. And these millions of men are really not represented at all, except very indirectly, in the government of the country. Parties and party bosses do their governing for them. A few rich men own the lawmakers and control the laws.

In addition to the fact here stated, it may truthfully be added that the furor for unions, federations, leagues, clubs, and other combinations of the masses are well calculated to aid the bosses of all kinds in the manipulation and control of their slaves.

Earthquake in Southern Italy

A terrible earthquake occurred in the southern part of Italy on September 8, destroying twenty-five villages. Three hundred seventy persons lost their lives in the ruins of their homes, and six hundred persons were injured. This calamity has resulted in great destitution and much suffering among the people affected.