AGE CANNOT WITHER

Today Thomas Alva Edison, most illustrious product of the Horatio Alger academy of success, reaches his eightieth year. And with the festival come congratulatory telegrams by the basket full: flowers--and Henry Ford. Honor comes to whom honor is due. For Edison is one of those fortunate geniuses who has received fame while he is still able to enjoy it. On him--as on only too few--are showered flowers for the living.

One might well say that a biography of this grizzled and vigorous octogenarian would include the origins of all the major scientific inventions of the last half century. Only when his achievements are recorded do his marvelous ingenuity and ability become clear. The name Edison has grown to be synonymous with the new era, not only because of his actual results which abound in daily life, but also because of his remarkable character which has never admitted defeat and which is based on the fundamental qualities of all that is best in human nature. The younger generation offers its congratulations to one of its staunchest defenders.