The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-05-31
WEDNESDAY EVENING. MAY 80. 1906

dlllu tne roses. IL is true tnat IN laler
life we look back upon the school years
as the happiest and sweetest. But that
is not SO much because they are devoid
of care and labor as because in our
optimism we thought the world easier
Of conquest than we do after years of
conflict with it's selfishness and
sortlidity.
The young people who today become
part of the alumni of the city school
have fought noble fight. 1t began in the
kindergarten and through all the years
the goal of graduation has been the
object kept in view. Not only has it
been a battle we'll fought and nobly
won so far as the completion of the
prescribed course of study is concerned,
but there are other things which, while
making the victory the more glorious.
have caused the battle to be more diff
ticult of winning.
Emulation is the key note of all
education. The young men and women
who are today receiving from the
officials the highest testimonial of the
schools, have not done so without
labor. The student who fails in his
classes suffers pangs of remorse a
thousand fold more than he who fails
| in the actual battle of life in later
i years. In school the theory is that
there must be no failures The one
who fails in class is disgraced in the
estimation of his fellows. The one who
can lead his class is worthy of all
honors. 1t is for these reasons that
the failure in school Is more disgrace
full than is the failure in real life.
Youth finds no excuse for incom-
potency. 1t is for this reason that the
student will labor harder to achieve
success in his studies than he will
to achieve success in the actual battle
of life. He is brought into closer touch
with his rivals and the failure becomes
the more acute.
He then believes that the years of
the students life are all of roseate
skies and golden sunsets is much mis-
taken. The battles he fights are real
conflicts and the victories he misses
are the real losses of life. 1t is there
fore no wonder that when the time
come for him to receive the certificate
of his completed work that it should
have to him meaning more valuable
than it has to those who have fought
the battle SO long ago than its remem-
brance is like half waking dream.
But the battles fought in the mimic
strife. and the conquests won in the
mimic conflict are not without their
intrinsic value in the making of the
great men and women of today and
| yesterday. In youth We must be train
ed for conflicts of life We must have
the intellect and the soul hardened
in the battles of youth if they be able
to successfully force from the world
victory.
1t is not alone the facts we gather
in the years Of school life which makes
the training valuable as life asset.
It is the development of character.
and by this is not meant the develop
lent OF the moral side of man. for
valuable as that is. it is worthless I'M
! less founded upon a genuine strength
Of character.
The young man or woman who has
the years of youth made easy has been
falsely educated. even If such train
ing can be called an education. Char
acter is developed and strengthened by
conflict with difficulties. Ambition,
energy, determination and will are
all developed by use. The difficulties
overcome in the class room, the striv-
ing after the class victory, the emula-
ton and rivalry Of the classmates all
strengthen and develop the real char
acter and prepare the student for the
sterner battle of life.
But this training is not without its
bitterness and disappointments. Defeat
in the class conflict Is more bitter than
defeat in the real struggle of life, for
the competitions and critics are less
charitable because less versed in the.
realities Of life.
But the mimic. struggles which the
graduates OF the high school have
mastered are, none the less. real to
them, and the sometimes Aavering
tide of success has been to them a
thing of reality and serious concern.
Today they stand on the pinnacle of
their hopes and as they look back over
the years Of study and application and
labor. they feel and justly 80. that
they have indeed VOL race worthy
Of the victor's laurel crown
PURCHASING RAILROAD FAVOR. !
1t may be true says the New York
Tribune that few years ago It was
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