Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-11-24
WILL POWER is THE MEASURE or THE
MAN AND THE SECRET OF ALL SUCCESS
Many Great Inventors Failed Wealth Because of Weakness
OF Wilbur Civilization Might Have Reached More Than
1000 Years Ago if the Scientists of Alexandria Had
Possessed Persistent Wills
By JOSEPH II, oDELL

I
WEARS before Alexander Graham Bel
perfected his telephone, Daniel Draw
bridge Of Milltown, Pa, constructed an cleo
irical instrument by which the human vote
could he heard through wire, but he lacket
the persistence Of will to push the inven
tion into general use John Fitch, cleve
/ but erratic man, anticipated Fulton's steam
/ boat by many years. He built and ran sew
/ eral steam propelled ships with a fair degree
| Of success. enough to warrant continued ef-
/ fort Failing to arouse enthusiasm ih Amer
lea he went to France in the hope OF finding
appreciation. There he was disappointed
also He filed his plans and specifications
with the American Consul in Paris and re-
turned home. Some time later these docu-
ments we're lent to Robert Fulton and he
carried the idea to n practical conclusion.
Fitch struggled for little while against dis
enlargement and neglect, and then, losing
faith in himself, he committed suicide in
1898. Nine years later, Fulton returned to
America from France, made his successful
experiment with the Clermont and won the
rewards and honors that might have gone to
Fitch If he had possessed stronger and
steadier will.
These instances carry us back across the
centuries and make us ask whether il was
not a lack Of the same volitional quality that
caused so many valuable discoveries of
ancient times to fail of being put to use
For there was period of inventive skill in
which men discovered the bearings of the
many great forces of nature, but they failed
to apply them or rather they failed to per-
sist in applying them. There was a phe-
nomenal awakening of the mind about 300
years before the Christian era, but the mind
is powerless without the exercise of the will
During the century following the death of
Alexander the Great men had the ability and
the means to create modern civilization
but they lacked the purpose. About 300
B. C. Euclid wrote "The Elements of
Geometry" Nicetus of Syracuse taught that
not only did the world move, but that It re-
volved upon its aXis-an opinion quoted by
Cicero. Eratosphenes believed the earth to
be round and actually computed it's circum-
ference to be 10000 miles-not so very far
out. Aristarchus of Alexandria, city which
then had university of $4,000 students and
4 public library of 100000 volumes-meas-
lred solar and lunar distances by means of
angles just as we do today. Hipparchus dis
covered the procession of the equinoxes, in
vented the planisphere and applied spherical
rigonometry to the solution Of astronomical
problems. Ctesibus laid the foundation of
lydro- o-mechanics and devised n number of
lydraulic and pneumatic machines-the
iphon, the hand flre-engine and the force
Jump being the most notable. His pupil,
tero' actually invented a steam engine a
ort of steam turbine without piston or
ylinder. This was about 200 B. c.. and !
he discovery was forgotten for more than
centuries. This same Hero also developed
hot-alr engine which he used to open and
lose the doors of temple and which the
eople naturally thought to be a miracle
-rchimedes founded the science of hydro
tatics, worked out the idea of specific gray-
" invented the screw pump, the endless
crew, huge crane for lifting ships out of
1el water and various hydraulic and com
ressed air machines.
Individual development as we'll as world
rogress can be measured by the volume OF
ill-power that is exerted. Take the first
loueand men you meet on the street and set
lem In line Study them. Apply any and
very test you know. What differentiates
lem one from another? Some win your re-
'ect some your admiration, some your pity
Id some your scorn and blame Some are
Iccessful others are failures. A few have
asped almost everything that was within
ach, many have missed every advantage
I'd have nothing TO show but a record of
feat and humiliation What is the unmis-
kahle feature that distinguishes them and
AIDES them? 1t is not physical. Some of
ose at the top are frail and fragile crea
res, who make a hearty meal from cup
clear soup and the wing OF a chicken;
me at the bottom work in trenches all
y long, are perfect giants and have never
own an ailment in their lives. !
Neither is mental equipment the chief !
ark. There are men. branded unmistak-
ly as failures, and yet they have not for '
tten the mathematics, the Latin and Greek, '
history and economies they learned in a