Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-07-15
THE GOLDEN WORD

THE word fail" was expunged from
i that superdctionary known as the
lexicon of youth by Edward Bulwer Lyt-
ton. 1t is time for another onymoclast to
tear forever from mems books and from
their minds the more sinister word, "op-
portunity'
A strange thing, It is never heard on
the lips of successful men as an active
force. with them it is something to be
made, something merely passive, that is
to be created in accordance with the high
necessities of forceful life. But it is
always spoken by those who have not
made it with the sense that opportunity
| itself is the creator, makes or breaks man,
directs the progress of the world.
We hear 1t today with an ironic touch
when men say that opportunity no longer
exists forgetting that it never can Tex.
ist'O because everything has been done.
The irony is, to be sure, in the fact that
this is the highest tribute to those who
have made their good chance. Men walk
about the streets today who could have
invented the automobile. They are pos
sessed of the strange conviction that the
motorcar was inevitable and that with
their superior equipment and training
they would have developed tiff it hadn't
been done already. But very few of them
have taken the great gift of the motorcar
and done with 1t what Henry Ford has
done. Not one of the men who would
have done great things with the small
motor did anything with it, Only the
Wright brothers, who probably felt deep
humility before it, worked it into aero
planes.
1t is, of course, the "complexity" Of
modern life which leads those who cannot
master it to say that all that the world
needs has been given, all it can do has
been done. But It is a far simpler matter
to go from here to Pittsburgh today than
it was when Fort Duquesne was built. 1t
is easier to illumne City Hall so that it
stands like a tower of light than it was
to light an English nobleman to a Hal
loween party in Shakespeare's time. The
linkboy seems poetic now, but he was
downright prosaic and quite ineffective
three centuries ago. And this is perti-
nent because the, growing simplicity OF
modern life has created so many neces-
SllleS IIdl IlleI ileeu Oily Opell lIltl eyes
to see what must and can be done. 1t is
still necessary to create opportunity, but
the materials are closer to hand
We look out on a world today more
varied, more colorful, more rich than IL
has been for many years, perhaps since
the Renaissance. A century of compara-
tive peace has developed commerce and
science and with them n new attitude
toward life. The century ends in bloody
warfare, and the world aghast stops to
consider its hundred years and to Won
der whether they have been good. So art |
and philosophy return. But the winnings |
Of the century cannot be gambed away
on the battlefield. The restoration of the |
world will call into play every factor, will |
make requisition for every stout heart |
and every fine brain, will ask chemistry |
and poetry to join with sociology and |
sculpture in making the world whole |
again.
There are the materials of opportunity, |
but opportunity itself is not the golden |
word. If there is an incarnation in words, |
an open sesame" it must be in some
thing as simple and as inherent in nature |
as sesame itself. And IL is. The golden |
word is will" That, too, is a word dan. |
gerous to use, but it is safer than oppor-
tunity because it is part of each mans !
composition. For many years since the
worship OF the will has become preva-
lent the idea has obtained that all men
possess it equally, which is no more and |
no less true than that men possess legs
equally. VIII exists, but it can be de-
veloped, and just as the weaker legs will |
lose in race. the weaker will is destined |
to lose. To dominate the will, to develop |
it, to feel it conquering, or at the least TO
feel the swift rush of its strength in battle |
with an adversary. that, and not the TAX |
ing of opportunities ready made, is the |
low and the Zest of life.