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we say we can't do that. To be sure, we can't, you and I. I wonder If we 

 would like it very much if we could. I think it would bore me to extinction, 

 because I don't know of anything that is as much fun as work. But there 

 are kinds and kinds of work. Sometimes I work in my leisure but don't 

 call it work, because I recognize it as a pleasure and realize that I enjoy 

 that particular task. 



If I were to define leisure I would say it is the time we have left over 

 rfter we have done the work that is necessary for a living. That is, the 

 time we don't need to use to provide food, shelter and the necessary cloth- 

 ing. Now maybe that is not very much time. Let's see. When we are eat- 

 ing we are not working for a living. So there is mealtime, that is two or 

 three times a day. There is some time in the evening when we are not 

 working, and how about Sunday? We don't work all day Sunday. So you 

 see all of us have some spots of leisure. I am not certain but what we might 

 have more if we knew just how to go about it. 



You know we have done a lot of mix-up thinking about this very im- 

 portant subject of time. I have had people say to me, "When you keep house 

 and sew for your children and the like, how do you find time to write books?" 

 I'll tell you a secret, I don't. I never yet have found any time. I have 

 walked up and down State street a good many times looking for various 

 sorts of things, but never yet have I seen a chunk of time out in the street, 

 nor have I ever seen any time out in the prairie. Have you? We don't 

 find time! If we want to do anything we have to use the time we already 

 have! We don't find new time! 



24 HOURS A DAY FOB EVERYBODY. 



We talk a good deal about equality and everyone having an equal chance 

 in this country, and it is well enough to talk that way, but down in our 

 hearts we know that everyone isn't equal. Look at some of the conspicuous 

 inequalities! Some of us here are old, some are young, some of us are good 

 looking and some go to beauty parlors; some of us are lean, thin and stylish 

 and some are dieting; some of us are rich and some are rustling around still 

 on our first thousand. There are all kinds of folks, but there is one real 

 equality: whether you are rich or poor, old or young, wise or foolish, you 

 have twenty-four hours every single day all your own. Twenty-four hours 

 to do with as you like. I wonder sometimes, whether we need any greater 

 equality! Just think what that really means! A Burbank, an Edison, a 

 Wilson, a Roosevelt, a Lincoln, a Washington has twenty-four hours in his 

 day; the man who spends his days sitting on the railroad ties has twenty- 

 four hours in his day just the same, and yet look at the difference in the 

 results! 



You all know how some folks seems to get so much done and some seem 

 to be everlastingly rushing yet both have exactly the same amount of time. 

 The same as you and I have wherein is the difference? 



Of course, if it was merely a question of getting something done and 

 then sitting down with nothing to do, I think we had better hurry off home 

 and get the work done and then just loaf. But it isn't that. You and I 

 know it isn't that. The way to get a great deal done in our working time 

 is to decide what we want most to do and thereto do it, I know only two 

 ways of getting more accomplished in the twenty-four hours. The first is to 

 eliminate the unimportant things, and the other way is to improve our 

 methods of working. In these two ways we can, perhaps, hope to have more 

 leisure. 



But if we had more leisure what would we do with it? Can leisure be 

 put to any good use? Take the time that I spoke of, the three kinds of time 

 when all of us have some leisure, meal time, some evenings and part of Sun- 

 day. What ought that time if well used give to us? I could not have time 

 in one speech to tell you all that it might give to us, but some of the main 

 things that part of our leisure might give to us are, a sound body, good 

 friends and higher ideals. Those are three worth while and important 

 things we can hope to get from our leisure. 



