EDITORIAL 
What is the Trouble With the Present 
Times? 
We have tried to explain the trouble 
with the present times in the editorial, 
“There Are Others,” on page 1 13 of the 
December number of The Guide to 
Nature, of which several friends have 
been kind enough to speak to the editor 
a word of comment and appreciation. 
Perhaps one of the best epitomes of 
the truth of that editorial recently came 
unconsciously from two different per- 
sons. As I was buying an article in 
a store in Stamford one of the clerks, 
rambling on in a kind of soliloquy or 
dissertation, said: 
“Yes, that is the price. Did you ever 
hear anything like it? Isn’t it a per- 
fect shame? I don’t know what this 
world is coming to with all this 
profiteering. Somebody’s got to get 
hold of these capitalists and stop them 
or they will wreck the world. There 
seems to be no limit to their demands. 
Why, this very thing I am selling you 
has jumped in price about three times 
within a few months, and I have sold 
lots of it for (mentioning a price about 
one-fifth of its present price . Yes, sir, 
this world is in a sad state, and I tell 
you the profiteering capitalists have got 
pretty severe things to answer for on 
us poor people.” 
Thus he rambled on for at least five 
minutes, waxing eloquent and even 
pausing in his work to wave his hands 
oratorically. I thought he was prac- 
tising on me for an oration that he was 
going to deliver from a soap box. 
I went into another store where it 
so happened that the proprietor gave 
me his personal attention and thus 
philosophized for my edification: 
“You are lucky to get it even at that 
price. But who ever heard of that sell- 
ing at anything like that? If I had 
been told it even a year ago I would 
not have thought it possible, but now 
I am surprised that it can be sold so 
low. Think of all the demands these 
labor unions are making and look at 
the number of hands that article had 
to go through. Why, when you are 
paying a man a dollar and a half to 
run a wheelbarrow and what do you ex- 
pect skilled work will cost? There 
is no show for a man in business nowa- 
days. Laborers are taking everything, 
and something serious is going to hap- 
pen to call a halt on all this. You know 
labor never is satisfied. If you double 
his pay he would want it doubled next 
week. He would think you were con- 
science-stricken because you doubled it 
only that much.” 
So he stormed on until I retreated, 
feeling guilty of something, I knew not 
what, conscience-stricken because I am 
a laborer and must be so traduced. 
Then I got to thinking of the other 
fellow and more and more I was glad 
that I had labored over that article. 
“There are others” is good capital for 
the present. 
A Thoughtless Crime. 
We are informed by a clipping from 
the Poughkeepsie “Evening Star,” 
under the heading, “Gifts of Trailing 
Arbutus Make Congregation Happy,” 
that more than three hundred bunches 
of that dainty plant were given to the 
congregation of the First Baptist 
Church at its evening service and 
proved that spring had arrived. It 
proved more than that ! We are fur- 
ther informed that the worshippers at 
this service were made happy by the 
little bunches of sweet spring arbutus 
and that the gift found great favor. It 
might well do that. The article says 
further that a profusion of arbutus 
blossoms was found in an obscure cor- 
ner of the woods by Boy Scouts on a 
long hike. They then evidently pro- 
ceeded to exterminate the plant, as 
with it they made more than three 
hundred bouquets. 
We have no words strong enough to 
denounce this outrage upon nature, this 
total lack of appreciation on the part 
of those narrow-minded Boy Scouts. 
