The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-05-18
FINLEY MAKES NOTABLE
ADDRESS TO THE BOYS

The address recently delivered by Pres
ident w. w. Finley of the Southern rail-
way at the Berry School for Boys at
Rome, Ca. is regarded as masterpiece
of simple and forceful exposition. 1t
was as follows:
Boys:
One day more than a hundred years
ago, while fierce naval battle was in
progress, a bomb with a lighted fuse fell
on the deck of an English ship. The
fuse was burning rapidly and in mo-
ment there would be an explosion that
woul kill lot of sailors and greatly dam
age the ship. The sailors were scram-
bling away from the bomb as fast as
they could, when a boy, no larger than
some of you ran to it and, picking it up
in his hands, threw it into the sea. That
boy was Horatio Nelson, whosafterwards
became the greatest naval commander the
world has ever known. When he threw
the bomb into the sea he did the right
thing at the right time. If you read
the story of his life you will find that
he won all of his great battles just that
way. Whenever he approached the enc
my's fleet he studied the situation and
made his plans so as to strike it in
just the right way, at just the right time,
and to hit it hard. He always tried to
bring all his ships into the fight and
to hit the enemy's fleet smashing blow.
The highest success, not only in war, but
in everything that a boy or man may
be called upon to do, depends doing
the right thing at the right time, and do
ing it with all your might. That is the
way to play and that is way to study.
When you play. play hard, and when
you study, study hard. In that way you
will get the most good out of school
and you will get the most fun oht of
it, too.
I assume that you. like most other
American boys, play baseball. In a ball
game, with the score tied in the last in
ming. with two out and player on sec
ond base. if one of you boys is called
to the bat it is up to you to hit the ball,
and to hit it hard. After you leave
school, when you get into active work
on farm, in a factory, or on a rail-
way, there will be many times when you
must hit the ball and hit it hard. Sud-
den emergencies will arise like that when
the bomb with its burning fuse lay on
the deck of the ship, when you must
know what to do and must do it quick,
and In just the right way
The purpose of this school is to give
you training that will enable you, when
difficulties arise in the future, to decide
what is tie right thing to do and to
know the way it ought to be DONE 1t
may seem to you now that some of the
things you are studying here will not be
of use to you when you leave school, If
you have any such idea, it is a great
mistake, for, just as playing baseball
strengthens your muscles and makes you
more active and better able to handle the
hoe or the axe so everything you study
in this school strengthens your mind and
makes it more active and prepares you
to do better work in any line than you
could possibly do without a school train
ing
If you keep at it after you leave school.
doing everything you have to do as web
as you can do it, always trying to do a
little better trying to learn everything
about your work, and putting in some of
your spare time reading and studying
books from which you can learn new
things, you will succeed In life Profess
sSOf Blackle, a man VINO taught Greek
to boys and young men in great school
in Scotland, once said:
1.-The greatest praise that can be given
to the member of any association is in
these terms: This is a man who always
does what is required of him and who
always appears at the hour when he Is
expected to appear
1t Is men who have measured up to
Professor Blackies standard of always
being at their posts and of always doing
their duty who have risen to high places
in the world. In the railways of the
United States there are many men who
started as boys or as young men in very
humble positions and who have risen to
the top simply by doing whatever they
had to do to the best of their ability
Not to mention many others, Mr.. James
McCrea, president of the Pennsylvania
Railroad company and Mr.. w. c. Brown,
president of the New York Central lines,
the two greatest railway systems of the
United States, began at the bottom. Mr..
McCrea began as a rodman with sur
veying party, and Mr.. Brown began pill
ing up wood to be used as fuel for the
engines and afterward worked as section
hand on the Chicago, Milwaukee and st
Paul railway.
These men and many others like them
have risen to high positions because their
habit of doing the right thing at the
right time and Of doing 1t with all their