The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1905-03-31
POWER OF KNOWLEDGE.

edge. It's easy when you kho"
how" is common slang expression,
but full of meaning. 1t means that
knowledge makes anything, however
difficult it may seem to the unlnltlated'
easy; however hard it may be to
Others, 1t is easy to those who have &C.
quired the knowledge to know how.
knowledge only comes in two ways;
Effort and Opportunity. A man may
have ever SO much BRAIN, and yet
without opportunity, he can acquire
but little knowledge. Or he may have
ever so many opportunities and brain
power plenty, and yet without effort
he will acquire hut little knowledge
A man who obtains all his informa-
tion from books, is to be commiseIated;
he knows SO little compared to what
he might know. Home kept youths
have homelv wits - 1t is sin against
childhood not to allow him to acquire
some knowledge of the world and the
peoples of the world. Mans most In
teresting and most profitable study, Is
Man.
So we 60 back to our text: Knowl'
edge is Power. And it comes in only
two ways: Effort and Opportunity.
No town, in this modern time. is
keeping abreast with the times, that
does not give Its people, young and
old. the privilege and opportunity oil
a good public library. Not merely as
lounglng place to resd; but as
source from which to obtain knowl-
e1ge.
We do not subscribe to the fool notion
that man should be chlorofoImed at
sixty; but 1t is tue that
those of us who ale standing
the heat and burden of the day, plan
and build and hope more for those
who are to come after us than for our
selves. And so when we come to think
of the young, what opportunities have
they in Columbia, commensurate with
the opportunities afforded by other
towns and communities? And If our
opportunities are poorer than those OF
other towns, what chance has Column
bia to acquire that knowledge that
gives power and progress to COM
munity? And If our boys grow mp
and leave us for larger and more re-
munerative fields of work, how will
they meet and overcome, in the sharp
competition of life, those who have
enjoyed equal capacity and better OPP
poitunities?
These are questions that will moi
down at our bidding. They will ril g
in our ears louder as older we grow,
and will be asked and wonderingly
asked, after we are gone.
Think of this. What inspiration has
any young man or woman IN Colum
bla to any literary pursuit? just
think of that and answer it at youl
leisure. But if sporadic case appears
here and there. what opportunity il
there for its cultivationI If a student
wants to investigate any subject, t.
whose library will they go? If boy
is called upon to write composition
upon political economy, where will hi
90, beyond his text book, fol- his re-
search?
If he was asked to write on the life
of the Nations greatest hero and one
OF the worlds greatest generals. Robt.
E. Lee, he would be confined to 9
meagre report of some school history.
unless he CHANGED upon a life history
In some friends library.
The plain, indisputable fact is, We
are not giving the young people any
opportunity to acquire the power VI
knowledge. And it IS telling upor
them; they are not accomplishing
much. They are doing remarkably
we'll for their opportunities but they
lack the knowledge to attain to the
higher places of perferment, either il
the literary or the commercial world
As class there are exceptions. q
course.
so the question shifts itself. 1t il
not. ''can Columbia afford 81. 600 Il
TO support $40, 600 Carnegie librsry!'
But 1t is this: Can Columbia affOtC
longer not to have tirst-class publ {
library?" That is the question; ant
that is the question we would pu
upon the corsciences of the people o
Columbia.
As matter of fact. Columbia cal
afford to have anything it wants ant
needs. Our City Fathers, in soo'
faith to the people. cannot afford t
waste or squander one dime of I'll
peoples money. They cannot aifort
to give it to corporations to improv'
leir own property; or to legislate TO
any class or individual; bat anything
chat is for the good of the who'll