Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1911-12-28
PRESIDENT WATERS 70 BOYS
Head Of Kansas Agricultural College
Makes interesting Talk to stude'''S
on opportunity"

President Waters of the Kansas Ag-
ricultural college recently used tne
following language in talking 10 Tue
students Of that institution:
You are willing enough to assume
the entire responsibility for Whatever
success may come to you, but you are
Just as ready to lay the responsibility
Of your blunders and failures upon
someone else. Have the maAhooo'
then, to carry both, and have sense
enough to profit by both. A success
Improperly utilized may be your un'
doing; a failure used in the rlght way
may contribute to your success more
than anything else that could happen
to you.
You may have asked yourseLI
whether you have not come upon the
stage Of action too late, after all Inc
really great things have been dascov-
cred or accomplished, and you may De
wondering If there is left any Isl
large enough to justify your present
pains in preparation.
THE truth is, this is the hour OF op-.
%portunity, and I mean large oPportu'|
nifty. So long as famine stalks unnln-
dered through the most prosperous
countries on the globe, and there are
bread riots in every civilized land; 80
long as the world lives from hand to
mouth, never having more than two
weeks food ahead; when such a pros
porous and powerful nation az the
British empire must protect the trade
routes from foreign countries v e
which come four out of every five
loaves of bread her people eat, the
question mos. fundamental to mankind
that Of our food supply-is far from
being settled, and will tax the ingenu-
ity Of the best trained scientists and
economists that this OF any other col
lege can furnish.
Thus far In this age, which we
class as golden, we have been profit
gate Of natural of every sort,
and our Erogres has been dearly
bought.
The problem of maintaining this
high standsra of living will give en-
ployment to the best equipped engi-
neers and chemists. When, in the face
Of abundant yields, the cost of living in
every lane has risen to the breaking
point, there Is room for all the help
that can he afforded by those trained
in the arts Of science. Of home max
ing and home management.
You need have no fear concerning
the magnitude or Importance Of the
work before you.
What may very properly give each
of you and us the graveSt concern is
whether you will be capable OF meas
aring up to the opportunities pre-
| sented.
IF you will go out prepared to do
something, and do it right, the world
will meet you more than half way and
will cheerfully supply the chance"
A good many farm boys when they
come to town OF otherwise get away
from home take a vacation from church
assuming that the essentials Of life
may be different in the new environ
ment. To them President Waters
says:
ut is a mistake for you to suppose
that coming to college means a reli-
gious vacation. You should go to the
church you attended at, home. You
should not shut yourself away with
your books. Join a literary society.
Take a reasonably active part in col
lege life. You are not here primarily
to be a football player or a college
rooter. These things are incidental
important, but not to be thought Of as
against the things you came here to
do: to fit Yourself for life. to studv"