The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-23
He CARRIED A HOD
How Superintendent Fairchild
Got an Education.
Worked His Way by Hardest
Kind of Manual Labor.
HEFIGURED TOO CLOSE
Lacked Five Cents Of Having
Enough for Car Fare.
Good Example of Grit for Young
Men of State.


the fact that E. T. Fairchild, state su-
perintendent of schools, the man who
has reached the top, has a suite Of
rooms in the state house and is head
! of the public school system, had
| harder time in getting his education
| than any boy in this state Even Abe
| Lincoln did not have a harder time IN
| getting his education than did Mr..
Fairchild back in Ohio some thirty
| years ago.
Mr. Fairchild is now a polished gen.
| tleman learned and wise in all things
| that pertain to books and the history
| of nations. He looks as prosperous as
| a Standard Oil magnate and as care
| free as though he had been born with
! a golden spoon in his mouth But the
| fact is that the head of the Kansas
| schools once carried a hod to get money
| to carry him through school, The eX-
| preston carry hod Is used When
| referring to some one who is at the
| bottom of the heap, down and out, in
the last peg, doing work that requires
| absolutely no brains at all. Well, Su-
perintendent Fairchild carried forty
! brick up a two story building in hod
| and worked hard at the job all sum-
| mer. He is not ashamed of it. either,
| for that hod helped him through school
The superintendent was in the gov
ernorS office waiting for Mr.. StubbS to
come back from lunch. A couple of
| newspaper men were present and the
| talk drifted to the increased cost OF NV
ing. The superintendent remarked tnat
| his boy at Lawrence required more
| money to keep him going a week than
| it took to keep the superintendent HIM
self through term of school when he
| was fighting for his education
When I went away to school," said
| Superintendent F'airchild, back in
Ohio. 1 had only enough money to take
me to the college town The first thing
1 did after landing there was to hustle
| for a job to earn money with which
| to pay my board. Jobs were scarce. 1
| finally found work carrying hod.
| When the building was finished / went
! to work in a basket factory. Later in
the term I worked three months in
| blacksmith shop. L was a, slender strip
| ling of a boy then and the hard work
1 did in the shop and Juggling that hod
| has been as valuable to me all through
| life as the education / received at the
| college, for learning is not worth much
/ to a man who has no strength or
health.
my money for board and books, saving
| just enough to get me home. / had fig
ured too close, though, for when got
| to the last leg of my journey found
that / was five cents short of the re-
quired railroad fare. That nickel
loomed up as big then as a 800 bill
does now. 1 found friend on the
train, however, who loaned me the
money"
This reminiscence of the state super
intendent of schools, told frankly with
out pride or shame and in matter of
fact way as real experience where
obstacles are met and overcome by
grit, should serve as a shining example
for every school boy in the state. There
is a lot of talk about what the old
timers of one hundred years ago had
to do to get an education, but here is
the head of the Kansas schools, a man
who has hardly yet reached the prime
of life, who carried a hod on his way
through school. He did not split rails
or o. a
modern dragon-he carried hod. He
is now carrying the burden of the
schools of the state on his shoulders
and carries it none the less well be-
cause he once carried that hod. The
boy who thinks that the state officials
reached their places through luck and
not by hard knocks is laboring under
one big mistake.
P. w Goebel president of the Com
mercial National bank of Kansas City,
Kan. has outlined plan to give ma
tional banks of the state the benefit of
the guaranty plan which he believes
the comptroller of the treasury will ap-
prove. 1t provides for the organization
of a clearing house association for all
national banks of Kansas; the stock |
holders, not the banks, to put up the |
fund to guarantee deDosits. He says
he hopes to have the opinion of the !
comptroller. to whom he has submitted
his plan, in time for the meeting of
national bankers in this city next Fri |
day.
A defect has been discovered in the |
Pittsburg state normal school appro- |
prfation of $121, 900 which was passed |
by the last legislature after the historic |
all night fight between the house and |
senate which will take a lot of legal
juggling to correct, if it can be correct |
ed at all. 1t is possible that the mis- |
take of the senate enrolling clerk in re-
gard to this bill may cause an extra |
session of the legislature.
The senate passed the original nor
NAL school bill carrying with it an ap-
preparation for $139,000 The house cut
this sum to $111 ,000 During the last
hours of the session this bill was sent
to conference committee three times,
indeed it was one of the principal
causes of the deadlock between the two
houses. Senator Porter had control of
the machinery of the senate in the eff
ers contended that as the other schools
had been cut from their former appro-
priations Pittsburg. too, should suffer,
even If it was Senator Porter's pet
600 was agreed upon, but the enrolling
clerk made a mistake. He enrolled the
house bill which had been rejected by
the senate and which cut the appro-
priation to $111 900. And this was the
bill which was enrolled and went to the
AS matters stand now the governor
signed a bill which was passed by the
house but did not pass the senate,
while the bill that passed both the
house and senate never reached the
governor at all
The attorney general has been called
into consultation on the case. The ap-
bill of which this Pitts
burg training school item formed a
part carries a total appropriation of a
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