Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1914-06-24
A. v. W|SHART GAVE
GRADUATING CLASS
A PRACTICAL TALK
Continued from Page oneo

This democracy needs an educa-
ton. For years the man who has
landed the big job is the man who can
win the most votes at the poles. We
1 pay no attention to his ability for
! filling the position. The opinion has
\ become all too common that any old
I fellow can build roads, and what roads
we have i'm Michigan. Every two or
three years new man is appointed or
elected i'm the district because he is
popular with the people at that partic-
ular time and without any previous
knowledge of road building, begins
doing the same thing that he has seen
done all of his life.
1.-The public schools of the country
are one of the strong bulwarks of this
country. We need them TO educate
men and women of individuality and
originality. Giving the women the
ballot will not cure the present
troubles. There have been as many
mistakes made under the present
form as there ever were under the
convention system. We are slaves to
ignorance.
1T is not as important to train boys
and girls for vocations i'm life, that
will fit them to go out into the factory
and make a living at once, as it is to
train them for citizenship. And right
here let me say, that / am opposed to
vocational or religious schools No
sect or ism can fit a boy or girl for
life as will broad institution where
all kinds of students meet on a com
mon level The school should be the
~ ,Ia
may be made better citizens.
What we want in the young of the
land is a community feeling of fellow
ship. We hear a great deal these
days about fellowship and brotherly
love. Yes, a great deal Fellowship
in the Presbyterian church or in the
Baptist the Congregational church
and the Methodist. We hear of that
fellowship in the Progressive party,
the Democratic party and the Repub-
iican party. But this is not all of the
fellowship we want. 1t is good as far
as il goes but does not go far enough
to embrace the whole community life
of the country.
ut is not education alone in the
schools that fit boy or girl for life.
They must have a moral training. You
may not see the good Of having a
church in the community, but / want
to say that the church is worth all
that it costs. Keep paying into the
church il will bear you good interest
on your money, in the influence II
brings 10 bear on the life of your
child. Teachers cannot do all of the
work Some of the big bosses of the
country know more about how to run
the government than the teachers.
They are studying it from a practical
standpoint. They have learned a
great deal Of this from the church and
its influence. Moral efficiency is what
we need.
AS these graduates go out into
the world they will meet with some
older person who will scoff at their
ideals and tell them that they will
have TO come down on a level and
become practical Regular pessi-
mists, they are, who try TO eliminate
all of the originality from the lives of
our young people They try to des-
troy their ideals our ideals are our
salvation. They tell us that teachers
used TO teach better, that students
learned
does now / remember in connection
with this thought that few years ago
quantity of old examination papers
were unearthed in Harvard. The
writer's of the papers had made the
assertion that they answered their
questions better than students of the
present day but when shown these
papers they begged the authorities not
to show them to any one coming To
the college.
1T is folly to measure success by
business efficiency. You can do your
boy no greater injury than TO fit him
to 90 into the factory Immediately up
on leaving school and make living.
4 living is necessary but we need far
more a full rounded life.
"A young man once asked an older
gentleman how to become rich and
the old gentleman replied. Work
hard until YOU make a hundred dol
lars and then deposit IL in the bank
When il draws you some interest de-
post the interest. Don't buy books, !
don't buy magazines, don't buy any
thing for your intellectual develop |
ment and never take a vacation. Work /
hard every minute, deposit all OF your
money and when you get as old as |
am you will be as rich as ] ann and as
mean as the Devil
"You are all familiar with the story /
of the Prodigal Son. 1t was not that
he could not live on the husks that I
the swine did eat. If he had been 7