ye, and a
cigar in his mouth pointing to the northwest, walked into a
hardware-store and remarked, "Lemme see your razors."

The clerk smiled pleasantly and asked, "Do you want a razor to shave
with?" "Naw," said the colored person; "for social purposes."

An education for social purposes isn't of any more use than a razor
purchased for a like use. An education which merely fits a person to
prey on society, and occasionally slash it up, is a predatory
preparation for a life of uselessness, and closes no prison. Rather it
opens a prison and takes captive at least one man. The only education
that makes free is the one that tends to human efficiency. Teach
children to work, play, laugh, fletcherize, study, think, and yet again,
work, and we will raze every prison.

There is only one prison, and its name is Inefficiency. Amid the
bastions of this bastile of the brain the guards are Pride, Pretense,
Greed, Gluttony, Selfishness. Increase human efficiency and you set the
captives free. "The Teutonic tribes have captured the world because of
their efficiency," says Lecky the historian. He then adds that he
himself is a Celt.

The two statements taken together reveal Lecky to be a man without
prejudice. When the Irish tell the truth about the Dutch the millennium
approaches. Should the quibbler arise and say that the Dutch are not
Germans, I will reply, true, but the Germans are Dutch--at least they
are of Dutch descent.

The Germans are great simply because they have the homely and
indispensable virtues of prudence, patience and industry. There is no
copyright on these qualities. God can do many things, but so far, He has
never been able to make a strong race of people and leave these
ingredients out of the formula.

As a nation, Holland first developed them so that they became
characteristic of the whole people. It was the slow, steady stream of
Hollanders pushing southward that civilized Germany. Music as a science
was born in Holland. The grandfather of Beethoven was a Dutchman.
Gutenberg's forebears were from Holland. And when the Hollanders had
gone clear through Germany, and then traversed Italy, and came back home
by way of Venice, they struck the rock of spiritual resources and the
waters gushed forth.

Since Rembrandt carried portraiture to the point of perfection, two
hundred fifty years ago, Holland has been a land of artists--and it is
so even unto this day. John Jacob Astor was born of a Dutch family that