Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-08-28
Giving the Poor Men a Chance

sprlngneiu uu) state Register.
The State Redister is getting sick
Of the silly drivel that the working
men have no chance. 1t is false and
it is silly, because everybody knows
it to be false. In his speech at Gales
burg, Clark Carr spoke of the rich
men of Knox county, and stated that
every one of them began life poor
1t is SO in this city and county. We
have q large number of men in all
lines of business, who are well fix ed
and independent, and every one with
out exception. so far as we know, be-
gan poor. 1t is so all over the state.
and it has always been so in Illinois.
Let any man conversant with the his
tory of Illinois, who knows the big
men, run over the list, which is too
,c"9 tn print, and he will surely find
that each one start.a f.o,., tho h@tAe,.,
and rose by his own exertions. Look
at the present state administration
Governor Cullom was a farmers boy
and made his first dollar by teaching
a district school in Tazwell county;
Lieut.. Governor Shuman started as a
boy in drug store, but was so fortu-
nate as to get a chance to learn the
trade of q printer George ii. Har-
low, Secretary of state, Is a cabinet
maker by trade; Ed. Rutz. the State
Treasurer, served as an enlisted man
in q regular battery; I. b. Needles,
State Auditor, began as a boy in Il
Washington county store; s. M. Et-
ter, State Superintendent Of Public
Instruction, an Ohio farmers boy,
was so poor that he walked 80 miles
to attend a country school.
All over the State it is the same
old story; the men who control the
press, the politics and the pulpit of
the State, who go 10 Congress, who
sit on the bench, who plead at the
bar, who own the land aud the crops,
the cattle and horses, the stores aud
banks, who control the railroads,
who have the fat places in the State
House and the high places on the
Boards of Trade, all, all have his
tory which can be duplicated if
blanks are left for names, dates, places
and trade. 1t always runs, in effect,
"John Smith was born poor, had to
work for living, wanted an educa-
ton, went to work and got it, picked
out line, farming, law, politics, pull
pit, physics, transportation. worked
at it and made himself eminent and
independent The history of the
great men of the world runs so even
| ly that it could be printed in tabulat-.
ed form, for the factors of every
mans success are exactly the same.
But it is still said that "a poor man
has no chance" It's false, he has ev-
cry chance, the world is all before
him, and all the luscious fruits of
fame, education, science, wealth and
Independence, hang just in front,
waiting for him to pluck them. A
man of great experience said to his
son, on arriving at manhood: "My
son, / have done tho best possible
thing for yon. l have not loaded
you with scholastic information you
did not desire, nor with wealth you
have not earned. If you want any
thing that exists in this world, 60 for
ward and take it. It's all in front of
lyou." The men who have all the
chance there is, as the history Of the
world shows, are the men who are
forced to exert themselves, and who
learn by experience to properly value
are men who have no chance, howev-
or, and these are those who, having
rich parents, are called upon to use
education and wealth which, they
have not acquired by their own excr-
tions. They sink under the load, and
instead of receiving the sympathy
they deserve, fools scoff at them be-
cause they fall in spite OF "having ev-
cry opportunity" the truth being they
have had no chance in the race of fife,
but were over-weighted from the
start.
The nation is beginning to revive
after a cruel war, after a period of
frightful depletion and depression.
New fortunes are to be built up, and
the men who accomplish this will be
those who have the opportunity to do
SO, that is to say, those who by the
blessing Of circumstances, are forced
to work, and by the smiles of good
fortune are obliged to be independent.
II RrIrNT RrT TRUE.-There is said to