The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1867-03-13
Our Young Men and the Pursuits
of Life.

The annexed article applies with equal
force to all the Southern States, and we
take pleasure in reproducing it before our
readers:
care we Under the new order of things,
as we were under the old, to be over
stocked in Virginia with professional men!
There is some ground to apprehend that
we shall: We have Seen it stated that an
tnduo proportion of the young men in
some OF onr leading colleges are taking
the law and medical tickets. We do not
set ourselves up as advisers and directors,
and Would hot airogahtly interiors with
the rights or with the private affairs OF
our fellow-citizens, but we feel it to be our
duty as journalists ard patriots to coin bat
any practice, any principle, or any idea
that tfay prove prejudicial to the interests
Of the COMMONWEALTH. We have now
more lawyers, doctors, and other non-pro-
ducers than are needed. There are
enough to last fof twenty or thirty years
Our great wants are producers and meh
of practical scicncc, to aid in developing
the resuurces Of the State, and to turn
them to account when developed. Agri-
cultute; the mechanic arts, manufactures,
the honest, manly industries are the great
sources of wealth. We want to sec our
young men turn their attention and de-
vote their talents to them, and let law and
pbysle alone. The competition in these
professions is now SO great, and will be
for the next quarter of d century, that few
comparatively can attain the distinction
and prosperity which so many covct.-
Most Of them will be poor but proud gen
tlcncn as long as they live. Take nm in
telligcnt; Industrious young man, put him
in an iron manufactoiy for instance, and
let him learn the business thoroughly,
and then start him id life with a licensed
lawyer or medical. graduate; and ten to
one he will, in fifteen years, BIO rich or in
a fiiir way to make fortune, when the
lawyer and the doctor will be without
any considerable practice, or at best with
only income enough to supply their com
monest wants, The same result will be
attained, if, instead of the iron business,
any of the great branches of practical in
dustry arc selected The fortunes arc not
made by the professional men; and the
great influence that propcls the business
ct life, and controls society and the dcsti-
nies of communities and countries, docs
not enlanate from them. The influence
of the commercial, mechanical and agri-
cultural classes is every year growing
more potential. Formerly they were. as
as compared with professional men, igno-
rant and uncultivatcd; but at this epoch
they are the men Of expansive views, and
the Protectors of those great enterprises
that build up cities and confer wealth,
power and grandeur Upon nations. The
men of ideas, IF real intellect and of su-
premc Influence ale, id this age, of these
classes. They are the men who wlcld the
mighty Influences Of steam, the telegraph,
and ali those other practical agencies that
control the affairs OF life-the dcstinies Of
men and nations. If called upon to define
this power, we would describe it rs edn-
Gated labor. 1t is that which. has built
up the wealth and prosperity of England,
and that has placed the Northern States
so far in advance of the States of the
South Labor was not hohored here,
under the old order of things, as it de-
serves to be honorcd: Almost every young
nan of any pretcnsions studied law or
medicine; or, being landed proprietor,
turned his attention TO Armii1g; or, ii the
son of merchant, to merchandise: Only
those who had no choice between pursuits
became mechanics ind artisans. There
were really not enough of them for the
necessities of the country, and OF the COM
paratively small number large proper
ton were ignorant and unsllilltul. Many
came from the North-somc from abroad.
There was in those days an indisposition
among the educated young mon OF the
South to engage in business CT any sort
that was not connected with the learned
protessiors. The mistaken notion pre-
vailed that labor was degradii4g-a dclu-
SION that; more than all other things
combined, retarded tho growth and de-
velopmcnt of Virginia. We fear that our
young mon arc not yet cmancipatcd from
the fatal influence of this dclusion, and
that too many of the present generation
will follow in the footsteps Of those OF the
past generation only to reap harvest OF
disappointmcnt-for the patcrnal wealth
that supported SO many in respectable
idlencss no longer exists.
We rejoice to see SO many schools and
and colleges and to know That such large
numbers of our young men and boys
much larger than we had vcnturcd to
hope for&arc attending them. One chief
object Of education is to instil correct
ideas into the minds Of youth and to cradi-
cate false ideas and opinions. We hope
that our professors and teachers will not
forget to combat that pcrncious and too
prevalent error that labor is not honora,
bic, and that the mechanical occupations
Of life areunworthy educated young men
We have known many instances OF boys
who manifested remarkable mechanical
nd ,uhn. if nut in thn 1vnrlSshon