Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-11-19

| defects and disqualsacations, which are so
easily pleaded to extenuate our failure or
palliate our lack of effort are probably a
mere bagatelle when compared with theirs.
A defect or a deformty may shut one door.
but 1t does not close all avenues Of oppor-
tunity. Instead of striking the flag to our
limitations and misfortunes, it is our first
duty to overcome them or to develop other
elements Of strength. or all the voices that
speak words of deiuslon in our ears, none is
more persuasive and enervatlng and mis-
leading than the whine of our own disabili-
ties. "tf you we're built like other men," the
voice says, there would be excuse But
you were sent into the world SO imperfectly
equipped SO foredoomed to failure, that no
one can expect you to vim II is a lie. a
double distilled lie, and the man who listens
is lost.
Charles Goodyear was Philadelphia
hardware merchant when he began to expert
ment with rubber, and he struggled for rs
years In misery and against recurring failure
to discover a means of mparting durability
to rubber compositions without losing the
1exibility of the material. He was poor, In
feeble health, with young family to sup
port and had only few friends. The ex-
periments shattered his already poor health
soon brought him face to face with starva-
ton, landed him in Jail for debt while his
friends deserted him and called him a
lunatic. But he knew that in the end he
could make rubber into commercial COM
modify He worked through year after year
Of loneliness physical pain and personal
humiliation. Men openly jeered him the
street and, believing him to be a maniac,
they ceased to reason with him. AT last the
dz hut he bad ro
begun to manufacture and market his rubber
goods than financial panic swept away
everything he possessed. Even then his !
sanity was doubted: friends, relatives and
his own family demanded that he should |
abandon his dream; they talked of having
him confined as a man of unbalanced mind.
was against him; but broken as
he was, in health and fortune, he fought
on; his will to succeed remained intact. And
now, wherever rubber is used in any form,
the name of Charles Goodyear is honored.
Self-reliance is only another name for
dominant and dominating will power 1t is
not we'll to form the habit of relying upon
the judgment benevolence of others. A
man must rest his claim to success upon
belief in his own powers and the unf1agging
exercise of his own will. The most precious
years of life can be wasted in consulting
'elatives and friends about possible course
II which they can know little or nothing.
BY the time all of the opinions have been
;athered, sorted and sifted the opportunity
8 gone forever. Nothing big has ever been
lone by a nice weighing of probabilities. The
cry best work of the world has been accom-
'lished against advice. in spite of apparent
disabilities in the teeth of bitter criticism
nd in the face of adverse public opinion.
he 1rst type-founder and printer was sup
osed to have been tool of Satan; as early
; 1907 Doctor Papin constructed a crude
owerboat, which was Immediately seized
y sailors and broken up because It's sue
ess might deprive them of livelihood; .
[argreaves had his spinning frame destroyed
y an indignant mob; Kay was mobbed for
his flying shuttle; Arkwright I
as denounced as an enemy of the working {
AN because OF his invention; Stephenson |
ad TO carry his railroad forward against !
olent popular prejudice; jacquard was 1
Early killed by the weavers for making !
8 loom Murdock's Illuminating gas was :
'enly ridiculed in the British Parliament: v
llton's steamboat was the butt of Jbs and Y
er; scientists and ministers OF the Gospel q
Morton for his discovery of =
aesthetics. The man who waits for favor h
g fortune is foredoomed to failure. Moth
& avails but to make sure Of what powers
; actually possess and then to strive for
cir realization though the earth rock and y
e heavens fall. If that is once learned
ere is not much beyond that any teacher v
n impart. +