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Published every Friday afternoon by 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE CO. 
Knight Building - Manchester, Mass. 
Boston Office: 
44 Herald Bldg., 171 'remont St. 
J. ALEX. LODGE, Editor. 
Manchester 137, 132-3. 
3660 Oxford. 
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at-2 AMe . . 
pian! 
VOL. X Sept. 20, 1912 No. 38 
The Crime of the Age. 
The crime against the laws of the 
human mind of our age is the care- 
less way in which opimions are 
formed, and expressed, and in which 
prejudices are acquired and permit- 
ted to be fostered in minds which 
otherwise are keen and aggressive. 
This is the penalty which the era is 
forced to pay for its progress in the 
communication of ideas im pubhe 
speech and by means of the printed 
page. The minds of men are being 
ruined by too much reading and too 
httle thinking. There are other con- 
{ributing causes to the failing name- 
iy. the modern inordinate passion 
for work and speed. ‘The one re- 
duces the opportunity for intelligent 
thinking on public questions by en- 
grossing the mind in the productive 
enterprise in which the individual is 
interested and the other under the 
stress of the shortened hours for in- 
telligent thinking would force the 
mind to the same spontaneity of ac- 
tion that characterizes the mechan- 
ism of modern industry. But the 
mind will refuse to be obedient to 
such laws from without for it has 
laws unto itself which men may pro- 
fit by only as they obey them. The 
mind requires leisure and we live in 
an age of wasteful haste; the wind 
demands time and exclusive action 
in a given direction, and this age is 
unwilling to think hard because it 
takes time; it is unwilling to con- 
sider discriminatingly every idea pre- 
sented to the ear or to the eye because 
it is work of severe type. Men do not 
make their own garments, but buy 
them made for them to save time 
and money and the business acumen 
of the material world bas subjugated 
the mind in its mental processes. A 
man may find his ideas made for 
him—rather ready made for him,-— 
and many a man otherwise intelligent 
has unwittingly permitted his mind 
to be possessed by the other unseen 
mind without the resemblance of a 
struggle. The American newspaper 
is necessarily a great sinner in this 
respect but can it be remedied? 
The average opinions expressed are 
too often influenced by other inter- 
ests than those of truth for its own 
sake and under the intense pressure 
of the demand for copy. It is the 
marvel of the age that the news- 
paper has acquired the perfection 
that it has. Let the pen move and 
the press whirl and the papers fly to 
the hands of the reader but—the 
reader should put a guard at the 
gate post of the eye and another at 
the door of the understanding to 
keep out half-formed, narrow, inde- 
fensible opinions that are thus thrust 
upon kim. It is the salvation of the 
human mind for it to assert its own 
autonomy and refuse to be subjected 
to every whim and prejudice of the 
skilful orator or ingenius writer. 
There is still a field in journalism 
for the great man who ean be con- 
tent to present facts, accurately as 
facts and who will express opinions 
as opinions. Theodore Parker was 
never more brilliant in his penetra- 
tion of the failings of the human 
mind held in bondage when he 
mourned the way in which public 
opinion was being formed by the 
anonymous penny a liner whose 
opinion expressed on the claims of 
his own authority and intelligence as 
an individual would have been negli- 
gible. It is well for a man to read, 
and to read much, but reading that 
fails to stimulate the mind to do its 
own work must end in harming rath- 
er than benefiting the human intelli- 
gence. The crime of the age is too 
much reading and too little think- 
ing. It is a pity that the gullible 
individual never will awake to the 
thought that the mind is being im- 
posed upon by these artful swindlers 
of the mind’s highest faculty, think- 
ing. 
Tax Dodgers and Collectors. 
The proposed action by the State 
against tax collectors in Massachu- 
setts who have failed to straighten 
up their accounts on taxes due prior 
to 1909 brings to mind the question 
whether the system of collecting is. 
in error or the citizens are failing 
to surrender their shekels when ap- 
proached by the collectors. There 
are undoubtedly tax-dodgers galore 
in many cities and towns, and this, 
hampered by an inefficient system 
and lax officials, makes a combina- 
tion that is not conducive to in- 
creasing the revenue of that particu- 
lar municipality through the medi- 
um of taxes from its citizens. Rock- 
port, although on the list of those 
places which have been brought to 
the attention of the attorney-gener-- 
al as a result of a law passed by 
the 1912 Legislature is not bothered 
with tax-dodgers in as great a meas- 
ure as some places. Boston keeps it- 
self on the map by its mayor’s pro- 
fessions of an abhorrence of tax- 
dodging, but is apparently satisfied 
with the way the collecting depart- 
ment at City hall is working. It 
is a significant fact that although 
three and a half millions in taxes 
were assessed in the Hub between 
1898 and 1908, only a million ever 
saw the ecollector’s office. 
In this ~ 
case, inefficiency and tax-dodgers- 
have been working together with 
disastrous results. On the other 
hand, the law as passed, works a 
considerable hardship upon the tax 
collectors and their bondsmen, for 
by the Legislature’s act they are 
responsible for the taxes which re- 
main unpaid. Just how far the state 
will go in prosecuting the collectors 
is problematical, but it is needless 
to say that it is keeping the collec- 
tors guessing. 
The Athenian Oath. 
The Athenian oath, so ealled, is 
rich in its vision of civie duty and 
loyalty. Every boy will be the bet- 
ter for having memorized it and the 
community in which he dwells will 
be the better for his having learned 
it. The ‘‘joining fever’’ is charac- 
G. E. WILLMONTON 
ATTORNEY AND 
COUNSELOR AT LAW 
W LLMONTON’S AGENCY 
REAL ESTATE AND INSURANCE OF ALL KINDS 
SCHGGL AND BRION ST’S, MANCHESTER 
OLD SOUTH BLDG, BOSTON 
SUMMER HOUSES FOR 
REN 
MORTGAGES -- LOANS 
TEL. CORN. 
