Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1890-05-01
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.

Nowadays Education Stands at the Head
Of All Required Gifts.
In olden times education was not val:
ued as it is now. It was realized that
an educated man was in some sense su-
perior toignorant people. but he was re-
garded as effeminate for wasting his
time in porting over musty parchments
and missals, and otherwise looked upon
pretty much as people nowadays re-
gard man trying to discover perpetual
motion. ....
Nowadays, says Golden Days, educa-
ton has been exalted to itsproper place,
ut the head Of all acquired gifts.
An uneducated adult is an object of
pity, and frequently of contempt, and
the very first step boy makes toward
future greatness is to acquire an educa-
ton.
He must be stupid boy, indeed, who
does not value an education and realize
that he can not become great without it.
1t is true that there are rich men who
are flliterate, but these are accidents of
fortune. They may have had money
left to them, may have discovered
mine, or may have boarded up r1oney
like miser. But these are exceptions
the rule is that education is tbs only
ladder to fame.
But then arises the question-what
constitutes an educationf The Wabash
railway has issued positive order that
no boy shall be employed in any Of its
shops or other departments, for the
purpose Of learning any trade or skilled
work, unless he brings a certificate
from his instructors stating that he has
completed his studies up to the second
class of the grammar school. This would
include knowledge of arithmetic up
TO mensuration. reading, writing,
spelling, elementary geography and
grammar, some history, etymology and
natural history, and may be taken as
a fair standard Of common-school edu-
cation.
If boy has the means and can afford
the time, he should not stop here. He
should go through the high school and
college, and take special courses in en-
gineering-civil, mining or electrical
chemistry, physics, or any one or moro
Of the numerous useful branches now
open to bright, energetic boys. But If
he must stop at a common-school educa-
ton, or even If he goes through college,
he must not stop learning If he wishes
to become great.
Textbooks do not contain all the in
formation with which boys should &C
quaint themselves. They are but the
foundation stones of knowledge. A boy
should study current events, tho history
Of the world which Is always happening.
Here Is where books, magazines and
newspapers have their greatest value.
He must read books of travel if he
would know about the geography of the
world; as, for instance, Stanley's de-
scription of Africa in the light of re-
cent discovery.
read OF some new discovery in science,
history, botany or chemistry, and add to
his education by just that much. The
knowledge thus acquired is always
source of pleasure and frequently of
profit. And it is popularity of learn
ing that the more you study the easier
1T Is to study.
The man who has learned two Ian
guages can moro easily learn third;
ono study acts as prop to another, and
so it is in every branch. The civil en-
gineer could easily master electrical en-
ginoering, and the boy who reads his
tory understandingly imbibes geography
with scarcely an effort.
In the case above quoted the railway
company has found that boys who have
completed the English branches of
study learn skilled work more easily
than those who have not.
The reason is quite apparent. Skilled
work requires the exercise of the reason
ing powers; the worker must under
stand the why and wherefore of his
work; he is not mere machine set go
ing. A boy with an education will
think while he works; he will study
and contrive the very best way of doing
any thing; his brain has been drilled to
reason and 1t does reason.
Such q boy is twice as valuable to his
employer as an unthinking, ignorant
boy, however obedient and willing he
may be, and the employer is bound to
appreciate his services at their proper