The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-10-11
ICUNG MONTANA.

Every young man in Montana pos
eessed of good health and a normal brain
and who can raise enough money for
board and clothes for few years should
take prompt advantage of the oppor-
tunities the state offers for a technical
education. The average Montana youth
comes of good stock if he is 20 years Old
or thereab bouts, for the chances are that
his parents had the courage and ambl-
ton to leave the east and build a home
here without waiting for palace ears o.
expecting the luxuries of city life. They
were determined to succeed regardless
Of all obstacles and willing to work hard
for a start. Such people are always good
people, full of energy and hope, With
healthy minds and bodies, and it is nat
ural to suppose that their children. now
reaching manhood and woIlannood, have
inherited parental characteristics. There
Is place for brains everywhere. Mon
tana needs scientific men in every field
OF industry. 1t needs men to open mines,
to build mills and smelters and manage
them, to construct bridges ana railroads,
and to utilize the fall of the rivers to
generate electric power and use it when
ever it is available in chea pening pro-
duction and maintaining wages. The
state needs scientific farmers scientific
stockmen, scie ntitlc irrigation experts,
scientific men in every industry.
In the years that are past, Montana
was compelled to look to the colleges of
the east for men when they were needed
for expert work in civil engineering
metalurgy, chemistry, railroad building,
mill construction or other industrial en-
terprises. When the Anaconda smelter
started, u years ago, almost every de-
partment was in charge of an eastern
man. Dozens of such men found work
in Butte at high salaries, and splendid
fellows they were. Most of them are
still here in charge of important enter
prises. AS the state develops, more men
of the kind will be in demand, and Mon
tana should furnish them from the ranks
of it's own sons. A man with practical
knowledge may win success, but if he
has in addition 4 scientific educa ton,
success is certain and the pay generally
higher. The state has many skilled arti-
sans and skilled miners, and more COM
mon labor than is sometimes needed.
What it needs now is men with scientific
training, who can harness the forces of
flowing streams, wiring from nature her
secrets, and utilize her wealth Of noun
tain and plain to the end that our diverse
resources may be SO developed that We
may become an independent empire in
dustrially, and find work and homes and
opportunity for half a million people.
The states educational institutions are
under able management and thoroughly
equipped. Every one Of them should be
full of students, preparing to carry on
the great industries of the common
wealth or start new ones and win FOR
themselves fame and competence. The
professions are over-crowded-the state
Us full of barristers without briefs and
physicians without patients. The field
af politics offers no hope except to the
few whose triumphs are fewer Success
in politics is often a matter Of money
rather than merit, and luck rather than
learning often decides the game. Let 40
young man, unless his record is so bad
that no misrepresentation can fail to i'm
livelihood. Let it's honors go to wiser
and older men and it's failures to those
who can afford to lose. For the young
man who aspires to usefulness and indie
pendence there can be no triumph
greater for many years to come than
''sheepskin'' certifying that the holder
has been graduated with honor from any
one of Montana's state institutions.
Let no parent in any walk of life hesi-
tate to send his boy to any state institu-
ton in the belief that it is monopo-
LIKED by the sons of rich men, or in the
belief that any class distinctions are toll
Grated there. Every student receives
precisely the same treatment. The only
aristocracy recognized among the boys
themselves is the aristocracy of brains
and the history of this country shows
very plainly that if such patent of nobil-
ity We're granted in real life the baronets
and earls and dukes and princes would,
in the great majority of cases, be the
sons of mechanics and farmers and hard
working men While the rank and file
would be mostly recruited from the
scions of the millionaires.