Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-10-07
"Bob" Taft's Common Sense.

"Bob" Taft's Common Sense.
1t is good to see the level-headed-
ness and common sense of the able
and honorable father crop out in the
son. Bob Taft, now studying law
at Harvard, if he does not reflect the
practical notions of the President,
certainly shows good judgment and
, leanings of his own. When approached
| by reporter. the other day, young
Taft declared with epigramatic di-
| rectness, that he was not in Harvard
to play but to study. He said: Il
came here to study, and not to go into
athletics or to be social lion, or to
do missionary work. or to be inter-
viewed. l am here just to- work, work
work. l didn't come here for the fun
of it. A fellow may go to college to
have good time, but when he gets
through he begins to think of more
serious things. Some fellows think of
one thing, and some another.
thought of law. I decided that the
Harvard law school was better than
that of Yale, and that is why 1 came
here"
The wisdom of young Taft's words,
we submit. is beyond the wisdom
which his age and experience would
Mt ha FIJI l.
lied the truism he expressed, espec
tally when he said: "A fellow may go
to college and have good time. but
when he gets through he, begins to
think of more serious things
So many young men go TO- college to
have a good time, that the great mass
aof the people of America today are
losing faith, to an extent, in the ben
efits of the so-called college educa
ton. OF course, we all understand
that in every such institution are
number of young men who go as young
Taft has done, to work, but how
many there are, whom we are well
aware go simply to play, and to avoid
that which they expect to come to at
the end of their college days-work.
Many of them go through college in
exactly that sense of the word. They
go through" somehow, anyhow, to
pass away the time and to postpone
the day in which they will be expected
to take up life's work in real earnest
and cut sticks for themselves.
Unlike young Taft. such young
men go into all sorts of athletics, and
it is their dearest wish to be social
lions. and they jump at the chance to
be interviewed. They hire the work.
ers to take lectures for them. and af
some cases, they get through" and
go home to the parents or guardian
who is furnishing the funds, with the
coveted sheepskin.
These young men take their place
in the world as college men. They
are careful to keep in touch with the
alumni associations. as a rule. and
are usually fond of referring to col
lege days, and of letting all those
with whom they come in touch know
that they are college men. But what
may we consider them to have got
ten out of it? The average high
school boy is more efficient in almost
any course of study than such a col
lege man. The high school boy can
enter commercial or industrial life of
any sort, and if he is alive and ready
to work, with the younger boys more
ready adaptability, he can outstrip
such college men in every race by
long margin. That is why we find so
many business men of wide experience
who pick their lieutenants from the
ranks of the school boys rather than
of the colleges
OF course. some of these men. as
young Taft said when they get
through college begin to think of
more serious things. If they have not
become too deeply stepped in laziness
and love of ease and social lionizing,
they may, after a good shaking up, in
facing the future. begin to think of
more serious things, and begin to
realize the valuable days and nights
and years they have wasted-because
they did not go to college to work
Young Taft, like his father, thought
of law. and with the rare judgment
which shows in his clean cut senten-
ces, gave serious thought to the
school in which he should study law
He selected Harvard as the best, and
in the future, he will not only wave
the blue of "Old Eli but the crimson
of John Harvard" and when he goes
to the annual contest on the gridiron
he is bound to win-as is any young
man who goes to either of these uni
versities with the same avowed inten-
ton as has young Taft-to work.
A Toledo theatre manager places
Sneaker Cannon in tho Apapias club