Los Angeles herald., 1905-04-10
SELF-MADE MEN
NOT ACCIDENTS
ANGELEN0S LAUGH At BUTLER
ASSERTION
They Speak Of the College Professors
Utteranee as so Much Cheap
and irresponsible
Gush"

The recent assertion Of President
Butler of Columbia university that the
self-made business men must be re-
garded as a freak or an accident" has
been the subject of much comment
especially in Los Angeles, where per-
sons in all walks of life, college bred
and otherwise, speak of the utterance
as "cheap, irresponsible gush."
President Buffers further remark,
to the effect that unless a man Is col
lege bred he Is not capable of compet-
ing in the different lines of commerce
and professions, simply causes people
TO laugh, so foolish and self-evidently
incorrect do they regard 1t.
Many of those who have contributed
much toward making Los Angeles
what 1t now is are men who started
out in life with little or no capital and
only an ambition to get to the top.
Judge Waldo NJ. York of the superior
court is an example. and he laughed
as If he considered President Buffers
theory huge joke.
II do not think President Butler can
be careful observer" declared Judge
York. "Why, almost every prominent
member of the Los Angeles bar is a
self-made man, and / think that is true
of all the judges. Any man with ability
and a determination to get to the front
will get an education and occupy a
high position"
Judge York in his boyhood days had
an ambition to be a carriage maker.
my ambition changed" said he,
"when was IA years old. l was work.
ing one day in a potato patch on my
fathers farm in Maine-just barefoot
boy with a hoe. An uncle came to
visit us and when he came out to the
and looked at him. He was judge in
a nearby city and a big, f1ne-looking
man. There and then l decided that 1t
would be much better to be judge
than a carriage maker, and from that
day 1 devoted myself to study. while
before that time L had to be driven to
school"
Worked Way Through School
Judge York worked his way through
school and when II years old he was
given teachers certificate At the
age of 20 he was principal of high
school and at 26 judge of the probate
court in Seattle-a self-made man.
The Rev. Robert Mcintyre, pastor of
the First Methodist church and one af
the most popular men in the ministry,
said of the Butler assertion:
ut is simply preposterous. In one
sense there is no one who is self-made,
as we all get something from each
other, but If Professor Butler uses the
term in the common sense it is
ridiculous.
"There are just as many self-made
men in the world today as there ever
We're in proportion to the population.
There are men who have certain origi-
nal endowments who will get to the
front in spite of everything"
Robert Mcintyre himself is a good
example of the self-made man. He
was an orphan and was left to secure
an education for himself. He bor-
rowed the money to go through school
and worked to pay it back.
Senator Frank P. Flint and his
brother Postmaster Motley H. Flint,
are other examples of men who have
forged their way to the front by dint
of their own efforts.
Sold Papers in Youth
L. Behymer, who has, perhaps, done
as much toward making Los Angeles a
musical center as any other one man,
began his career in the time honored
occupation of selling papers, and his
hours of study were only such as could
be spared from the time needed for
bread earning. His father was car
penter
"There are more self-made men than
ever" said Mr.. Behymer. "A college
education is by no means a necessity,
though 1 do not deny it is happy
acquisition. Work hard, be honest and
always be cheerful; this is a good rule
for the boy who wants to be a success
10 lolloW' Eighteen HourS d udy is not
too much for any man to work and he
will be all the better able to enjoy
three hearty meals"
All are unanimous in the opinion
that If Mr. Butler would include Los
Angeles in the list of places from
which he draws his conclusions there
would have to be a considerable
change in his figures.