The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-01-27

It is gratifying to note that Catholic
parents are more than ever alive to
the need and duty of giving their boys
the advantages of higher education.
The reasons that appeal to them are
many and varied, but they may be
briefly summed up under a few heads.
The call today in every walk of life
is for trained men. knowledge is
power, and without it there can be but
little hope for those who wish to win
success. This is in the very nature
of things, for just as the trained hand
of the skilled artisan gives him an
enormous advantage over the I'M
skilled workman, so the trained mind
gives its possessor an immense ad-
vantage over the man whose faculties
remain undeveloped. 1t would be a
pitiable thing to send out a youth
manned in body to compete with those
who are sound of limb and fleet of
foot; it is hardly less pitiable to send
youths manned in mind to battle for
the prizes of life with those whose
powers or faculties have been care
fully trained for the struggle. The
chief difference between one man and
another is not difference of intel
ligence; rather does it lie in the I'M
equal efforts men make to develop the
powers God has given them. Stats
tics show that 80 per cent of our boys
and girls do not go beyond the eighth
grade: About per cent complete the
high school course. Less than per
cent pass through college. But Stats
tics also show that from the ranks of
those who have passed through
higher institutions of education are
drawn the men who have to do in a
large way with shaping the course of
affairs in every department of activity
throughout the country. To the col
leges the nation is looking more and
more for those who are to be the
leaders in the various fields of bust
ness, politics, etc. Education is the
road to success, and those who are de-
barred from it must be content to do
the rough work of the world-to be
hewers of wood and drawers of water
Again, the habits and qualities
for success. The wisest of the Greeks
wrote that all men desire knowledge
but that few desire the labor neces-
sary to acquire it. knowledge can be
won only by toll. Who fain would
develop the mind must "scorn de-
lights and live laborious days." And
it is this toll of mind, stern and un-
hot CT ro1n
which they who would reap success
must ever undergo. Habits of indus
try and of close investigation, the
power to think for oneself, the love of
work, the ability to wrestle with diff
culties-these are some of the quail
ties which higher education calls out
and which are the guarantee of a sue
cessful career wherever they come
into play. Indeed, if more of our
young men were submitted to the dis
cipline that education in the true
sense Of the word entails there would
be fewer spoiled children, fewer
prodigal sons, fewer "lounging animals
on the prowl for mischief for the
world to deal with.
knowledge is power, and for this
reason parents should do everything
they can to equip their children with
the best possible education. But
knowledge is also a sweet and beau
tiful thing in itself: it is, apart from
all other considerations, a thing de-
sirable for it's own sake 1t is a tru-
ism that on earth there is nothing
great but man and in man there is
nothing great but mind. 1t is the
mind that makes us rich or poor:
man is what his mind is. Now if men
toll with a patience that never flags