Behind the Mirrors: The Psychology of Disintegration at WashingtonGilbert, Clinton W. (Clinton Wallace)
History
Behind the Mirrors: The Psychology of Disintegration at Washington
Gilbert, Clinton W. (Clinton Wallace)
Harding, Warren G. (Warren Gamaliel), 1865-1923; United States -- Politics and government -- 1921-1923
It represents, rather literally, Mechanism. In the war we adopted
perforce the creed that man was sufficiently master of his own destiny
to adapt Mechanism to his own ends; he could lay a presumptuous hand
upon God's Time. But in peace shall he go on thus boldly? Or shall he
revert to the good old days, the days of McKinley, when the clock was
sacred? Think of all the happiness, all the prosperity, that was ours,
all the duty done and all the destiny abundantly realized, before man
thought to lay a hand upon the clock!
The question what the limits to human government are is involved. What
may man attempt for himself and what should he leave to the great
Mechanism which has, upon the whole, run the world so well, to the Sun
in its courses, to progress, to inevitability? After all the clock was
in the beginning, is now and ever shall be--unless we meddle with
it--and before its cheerful face America was built from a wilderness
into a vast nation, creating wealth, so as to be the third historic
wonder of the ages--the glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was
Rome, the dollars that are America.
And not only are we divided as to the limits of government, but where
shall Mr. Harding look for authority to guide him with respect to
clocks? To his party? This is a party government, you remember. But his
party speaks with no clear voice about clocks or about anything else. To
business? Business has only one rule--more clocks in government and less
government in clocks. But business bows to the public. To public opinion
then? The public is divided about clocks; we tend to grow class
conscious about clocks. And clamorously amid all these authorities is
heard the voice of the Farm Bloc exclaiming: "Don't touch God's Time."
So it is decided that Washington may save daylight and save the clock
too, a double saving, a most happy compromise. If all questions touching
Mechanism could only be solved in the direction of such splendid
economies!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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