The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1908-01-30
THE YOUNG MANS CHANCE.

THE YOUNG MANS CHANCE.
All over the states of Iowa, Mime
sofa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and
the Dakotas, there are young men
anxious to take part in Industrial
America. When | was a boy in school
my third reader had extracts from
the speeches of Daniel Webster, Alex
ander Hamilton, VIM. Writ Henry
Ward Beecher and other men eminent
in the legal profession and in the
church. The growing and developing
mind of the young man was stimulat-
ed by the careers of great lawyers Of
men who were great in the profess
sions in which thinking and talking
was the great thing.
A great change has taken place in
America since / thumbed my third
reader 1t is doubtful if the ten best
informed men in any county in Iowa
would know who they were or what
their occupation was if the names of
a dozen Of the leading. lawyers in
America were mentioned in their
presence. In other words, there is no.
body in America today SO eminent in
the legal profession that the name is
a household word, there is no clergy
man in America so eminent that his
name Is household word.
1t does not mean that there are not
as good lawyers in America today as
there were in the days of Webster,
Calhoun and Rufus Chaote. 1t means
that the professions do not relatively
occupy as important place in the
~ %1l nj, \ fNr
This is an age wherepeople think
and do things in contradiction to the
age where people thought and said
things. 1t is the Industrial kings in
America who are known in nearly
every household. They Occupy the
limelight and in every house in the
colonized world. The name of Carne-
gle is known to every school boy and
the same is true of Edison, Rockefell-
er and fifty other men in Industrial
America could be mentioned who have
a world wide reputation. They occupy
in the estimation Of the developing
mind of the young men of the country
the place formerly occupied by the
great men in the legal and other pro-
fessions. In other words, Industrial
America occupies the prominent place
In public attention and especially of
the minds that are thinking about a
career.
3 Il The news in every morning paper
is made up largely of the doings in the
Industrial world. Now that brings me
to this thought; that the state OF Iowa
and In fact the states west Of the Mis-
sissippi river where the intelligence
is as great and the participation in
the thought of America is as great II
not greater than any other part OF the
Union, does not offer to the young
men who are coming on an opportun-
ity to take part in the great industries
of the country that it should. There
is hardly a manufacturing institution
where theopportunity Of learning q
trade is offered that is not importuned
for work by the very best class of
young men whose minds have been
stimulated along industrial lines by
reading the literature Of the day. The
father of a family of boys growing
into manhood will know how true 1t
is that the most ambitious youths are
longing to do their part in the worlds
present day adventures. 1t isn't posi-
BILE for every man on farm to build
manufacturing institution where our
boys can get the shop experience nee
essary to make them strong men in
the mechanical professions. but the
farmers in Iowa and In the Mississippi
Valley have 1t in their power to vast
ly increase the number and size of
factories near to them by patronizing
the nearby factories. For boy in
Iowa to go to a nearby town to learn
a trade is by no means the breaking
away from home ties that going to
Chicago or some other modern Baba-
Ion is likely to be. The home factory
should be a matter Of concern to the
people who have the best interests Of
the young men Of the state at heart