Word: optimistic
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Concerning present conditions Mr. Hoover might be described as having the point of view of an optimist. An optimist is popularly described as a man who has just talked with a pessimist, although generally he can do no more than listen. Mr. Hoover must have heard a great many in his time and various activities, and he has reacted accordingly. Not that he attempts to be a little sun-shine in the home. He does not sing with Pippa (who is by the way, no relation to Mr. Browning, the poet): "God's in his heaven All's right with...
...destined to grow up a strong member of the family of nations. Once established it will prove an effectual buffer between the central-European countries--more effective than the Belgium of 1914, because larger and stronger. And if, as has sometimes been claimed the true pessimist is really an optimist because everything will turn out better than he expects, the Daily Mail's correspondent can look forward to seeing in Poland the one hopeful sign in a badly confused and battered Europe...
...movies have friends and foes of all degrees, from the optimist who says they are an added force of enlightenment, to the lugubrious individual who traces to them all the evils of a crime-ridden world. To suppose that a man, simply because he has seen a sensational movie, will be impelled to go home and murder his grandparents for their inheritance, elope with his neighbor's wife, and wreck two trains and a house in the process, is patently ridiculous. Yet there is a grain of truth in the allegation which cannot be denied--many movies of today...
...long ago that Cornell be saved for mankind from the inroads of ambitious women, we utter the same prayer for ourselves more fervently than over, now that our danger has been demonstrated to be so close and so real. To the pessimist there can be little hope; to the optimists, however, will occur the thought that the Union will become still more popular hereafter, if only with curious guests. And pessimist or optimist, each one of us remains in fear and trembling lest tomorrow's "Tribune" report that some evil has overtaken Princeton, or perhaps Yale...
There is much to investigate, no doubt, and much blame to be placed. But it is emphasizing bygones that the optimist objects to. He would have the country adopt a hopeful attitude towards the existing evils, a realization that we want past offenders done away with primarily because through that attitude an opportunity will be given for corrupt organizations to reform themselves. After all the past is not of primary interest except as it affects the future. The real importance of investigating the corruption in the Shipping Board is that it will enable us to put our shipping...