The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-07-08
A LEADER FROM THE PLAIN
PEOPLE.

IN his rare poem If Kipling has
tho pregnant lines, |
~ YOU can TAI. with crowns anG
keep your virtue,
lNd walk with kings-nor lose the
comm N ouch
That is q test of education. The
thousands Of graduates who have
been sent forth from higher schools
of learning in the past few weeks can
ask themselves few more searching
questions than this, Have the 'lcs
binding Us TO the common people
been strena% thened?" h man who
has been educated away from his
kind. and into any sort OF ~snoobefy.
has been hurt rather than helped bN
his education. Training is not Tor
trainings sake, but for leadership.
once accompanied a worker for
negro welfare TO a negro church IN
81 Southern city. The congregation
was remarkable, for while not large
~ was made up of educated negroes,
men and women who had been train
ed for ace leadership. But they
were not leading. They were a ne
gro sristocracy, and apparently
rattle proud of the fact that the
stream Of black humanity which
surged past the church door did not
find these intellectual meetings con-
genial. These people were out OF
touch with their race In concrete
form that incident shows the peril of
n wrong conception Of the function Of
education.
Today we study the experience Of
Moses in his training for leadership.
In the school Of kings he learned
how to deliver ave A favorite
Of royalty. ne acquired the best for
the sake Of his downtrodden race
Moses never forgot that he was
sprung from the a Of the common
people. He owed a deep debt to the
common cause, and he elected with
noblest ambition, to identify himself
with his fellbw Hebrews. despised
serfs though they were. AS the in
spired narrative has it, he chose 'to
suffer affliction with the people Of
God rather than to enjoy the pleas
ures OF sin for a season."
Getting Ready for Great Service.
One chivalrous, impulsive deed
identified him beyond recall with the
cause of the Hebrew slaves and made
him an exile, where his training was
to be continued in other form. Moses
did not understand it, but he was in
sent from the classroom OF the city
to the classroom Of the wilderness
for the sake Of a symmetrical equip
ment.
Moses was learned in all the wis
dom OF the Egyptians. The best that
could be given by this wonderful civ
iliZation to a kings son was the pos
session of this protege of a princess
We have but to go to Egypt and
reao the monuments that were stand.
ing in his time to get a new respec,
for the school In which he was train.
ed.
The magic word preparation
shines for all youth from this stor,
Of Moses. He did not miss the op
y,hrtnnity 70 fit hin,calf for tho fntpro
The supreme business of existence 70
youth is preparation. To make read.
a clean. straight wise character 70
the use Of maturity is the purpose Q
the years hat lead to manhood an,
w~omanhood. The greatest tomorrow
In the worlds history is just ahea,
Of US who are alive today. Their
never was greater need for men an
women of vision OF purpose and 0
passion for the public welfare.
A special Influence" that Did Nc
Work.
The tug Of a myriad invisibl
threads which bound him to his ow
crowd and class were resisted b
Moses. He lived in the enviromer
Of an aristocrat. The most potter
and sinisted of all special influence
surrounded him. even as it surround
the rich and the learned today. Nose
~hobnobbed with royalty. and was NJ
naturally IN the Way OF hdeflnS III
cries of the multitude under the yok,
Today there are a multitude {
men in the same case who have NJ
the Moses wisdom TO effect deliyel
ance. Rich men meet chiefly rio
men. We all travel with our ow
crowd. Legislators and judges to
often associate only with the wealth
and are blind and deaf to the popul;
currents surging through the mint
If the masses.
There are few offenses in a pu,
lie man equal TO that of being out
touch with his own time.
The Moses story recalls the oppo
:unity that today in ~uneQualled mea
IRE presents itself to the young M
"nG women Of promise in our Ian
il rare and mighty work is to
dom by the sons and daughters
wealth and preparation who eli
themselves to a solution of our MAJ
problems. which. after all. are
base only human. These knights
the new chiyalTy are 8pdip0 in re