Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1911-04-18
farmers OPPORTUNITIES
we're never BETTER
Such is the Opinion of Farm
GFS' Union President
"Union City, Ga, April II, 1911.

ions concerning the present day far
mer, President Chas S. Barnett re-
Gently said;
Il have no patience with the COM
plant that, in our day, opportunities
for the young man are disappearing.
1t is the cry of ignorance or laI-
ness.
In every line opportunities are
greater, and rewards more promising
than at any time in American his
tory.
The only individuals with cause for
grievance are the boys who will not
equip themselves for success in its
highest sense, or those parents VINO
are guilty of criminal neglect in see
ing that the boy is properly equip
ped
During the past several years I
have visited every section of this
country, and directly and indirectly
Investigated conditions in PRACTICAL
ly all branches of commerce and in
dustry
Everywhere the demand is for
young men of ability to do the owlrd's
work; and the supply is far below the
demand
The great fortunes that have been
made in this country, and the luxu-
ries of the age in which we live, COM
bined with lack of parental discipline,
have done wrong to our boys
many of them have grown to have a
for humble beginnings.
This is the secret of the complaint
that the doors of opportunity are clos
ing and that success is only for the
chosen few.
"The boy of twenty years ago was
willing to work his way to success.
He was willing, and anxious, to begin
with the most unpretentious labor and
apply himself and deny himself, if he
saw rewards at the other end
THE boy of our day-too often
wants to begin at the top instead Of
the bottom.
"He wants to have success ready
made for him.
He wants to step into a snap an
easy BERTH without once rejecting
that, save in exceptional instances,
such positions are held by men who
have demonstrated their fitness by
long training, concentration and expe-
renee
THE sort of opportunity that mat
ters most is the opportunity for the
n oper kind of education
And educational advantages are
more plentiful and cheaper, today
than ever before.
ut is the educated the equipped
rreu Nho rule this country and who
reap its greatest awards in eye'$
branch Of oI.deayor.
ut IS those whose education is II
whose training has been
neglected, that feed the army of fail
Tres and the band of malcontents.
"The boys, or men, who are now
of lack of opportunity
md giving that as an excuse for their
raifferent success, would have done
40 better twenty, forty or sixty years
lgo.
Conditions have changed, of course.
is organized upon different
ines, competition has grown keener,
md the qualifications for success more
exacting
THAT is why we cannot over-empha-
size the value of education, adapting
t in every case to the peculiar needs
md abilities of the individual
In. the battle for success and dis
inction, the odds are all on the side
If the boy who is equipped. The boy
who is not equipped and who thinks
% reach the top without hard work,
S practically whipped at the start
LAS long as the world lasts, the
great fundamental principel of sue
cess will survive all changes in BUSH
ness or industrial methods of admin
istration; and that is, you must earn
success before you get it.
"You man complain that you have
no chance against the rich mans son
or the young man with the pull and
influence.
"If you have kept even a casual
watch on the drift of affairs in this
country. you will have discovered that
today rich mems sons and young
men with pull are required to make
good just as he who rises fro mthe
ranks.
If the scion of wealth can't make
good they relegate him from the world
of active affairs back to his task Of
merely spending money and dawdling
in society
THE call ever goes up for abil-
ity.
1T is better paid today than ever
before, and those who are anxious to
reward it cannot find enough able
young men to fill the positions that
demand handling.
THE farmer who does not equip
his son for success and for progress
is handicapping him, as against the
son of the man who is prepared for
lifes battles.