Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-03-08


From that day when it leaves the quiet EARTH
The iron goes through hard process OF educa'
tion before it becomes really useful-just as
avery human being must go through such
process.
And the greater, harder and longer the edu-
cation If wisely planned, the greater the USE
fitness In che end.
Follow through its education and It's life OF
work that steam shovelful Of ore lifted from
the ground.
No human hand touches Il. After the steam
shovel digs IL out it falls into the hold Of great
iron steamer. If 1t could think and talk, 1t
would say, 81 have seen wonders. have been
dug from the sleeping earth, carried through
the air, dropped into boat. Now am tray
eIIing. suppose my education Is over.
little later the boat stops at the great iron
city of Gary, on the lake shores Of Indiana.
Another set of steel fingers reach down into
the ship lift up the iron ore, and, still untouched
BY mans hand, 1t travels on wheels to the fur
mace. 1t is melted, purified, the dirt and use
less matter separated from the iron.
Then it comes rushing out Of the furnace, .
stream of sparkling, brilliant, golden metal.
A wonderful change from that ore mixed
with dirt sleeping by the lake, to this stream OF
red FIRE that forms one stage In the education
of iron.
And now, indeed, If iron could speak, it
would say, 81 am educated, for ! have been
through the FIRE and am liquid iron-a marvel
undreamed Of"
But the beginning of the education Of iron
has hardly come Just as mans education has
hardly begun when he has been for the first
time through the fire of bitter experience,
humiliation and trial.
The iron that was liquid cOols and finds it.
self large lump or 'ingOt," which, as you look
at it, seems a little shorter than the body OF
man and two feet square.
The iron has taken definite shape. 1t Is
lump of pure iron, and as such might be used
in dozen ways. It is no longer useless ore.
It's education has really started.
This piece of iron must go far. Carried by
machinery it drops into a runway that goes the
whole length of the rolling mill And 1t moves
along automatically from one stage to another.
Here and there, in tower, there SITS a man,
trained mechanic, with his eye on the differ
ent ingots of moving metal. He looks down
upon them, as we imagine an individual God
looking down upon us. The man In the tower
represents the law that controls those moving
ingots of metal And he leaves them to their
fate under that law.
Our lump of iron moves along slowly as the
others move. 1t goes a certain distance, then il
Is seized and squeezed with great force as II
passes. It's shape is changed. It becomes mar
rover and longer. MORE EDUCATION.
1t goes on farther, still redhOt and again 1t is
seized and squeezed made longer and mar
rover.
This lump of iron has been dropped into tn'
runway of the rolling mill that gives to iroI
the education that gives to metal the steel rali
and our iron ingOt is going through the educa
tiOnal stage that will produce the rail.
The lump of iron, losing In width ant
gaining in length, passes from one gripplni
machine to another, as the boy in his educatior
passes from one class to another.
At last, after long journey through the roll
ing mill, repeatedly seized, repeatedly squeezeU
getting longer, narrower and cooler as IL traV
els, what was once a rough mass OF iron' AM
before that the red soil Of the ore bed hnds IL
self sliding mechanically down an incline.
It Is now, SO far as the rolling mill goes,
finished steel rail. II has the length, the shape
And If it could talk 1t would say:
"Of course, my education is finished now.
have been through the fire and through the roll
ing mill and am finished product
But education is never finished, whether 70
man or a rail-
As this rail slides down the incline with
lerky movement, it passes before young Scan
dinavian six and half feet high, and for tn
nrst time It Is seized by human being.