Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-12-08

I the navy or the army, and that such
a career Is the one in which you Will
take a really heartfelt nterest-far
more so than any other-and that
your greatest chance for happiness
and usefulness will lie in doing this
one work to which you feel yourself
especially drawn-why under such
circumstances, i have but little to
say. But l am not satisfied that this
Is really your feeling. 1t seemed to me
more as IL you did not feel drawn in
any other direction, and wondered
what you were going to do in life or
what kind of work o would turn
your hand to, and wondered If o
could make a success or not; and that
you are therefore inclined to turn to
the navy or army chiefly because you
would then ave a definite and settled
career in life, and could hope to go
on steadily without any great risk of
failure. Now, if such is your thought,
1 shall quote to you what Captain Ma
han said of his son when asked why
he did not send him to West Point or
/ Annapolis II have too much conf-
dence in him to make me feel that it
is desirable for him to enter either
branch of the service"
l have great confidence In you. I be-
lieve you have the ability, and, above
all, the energy, the perseverance, and
! the ommon sense, to win in civil life.
That you will have some hard times
and some discouraging times l have
no question; but this is merely another
way of saying that you will share the
common lot. Though you will have to
work In different ways from those in
which I worked, you will not nav to
work any harder, nor to face periods
of more encouragement. / trust in
your ability, and especially your char
acter, and / am confident you will win.
In the army and the navy the
chance for q man to show great
ability IN rise above his fellows does
not occur on the average more than
once in a generation. When l was
down at Santiago it was melancholy
for me to see how fossilized and lack
ing in ambition, and generally useless,
were most of the men of my age and
over, who had served their lives in the
army. The nav for the last few years
has been better, but for twenty years
after the Civil War there was less
chance in the navy than In the army
to practise, and do, work of real con-
sequence. 1 have actually known
1ieutenants in both the army and the
navy who were grandfathers-men
who had seen their children married
before they themselves attained the
grade of captain. OF course the chance
may come at any time when the man
VI "tbl III VI <uIlapOllo II "AA
have stayed in the army or navy finds
a great war on, and therefore has the
opportunity to rise high. Under such
circumstances, I think the man OF
such training who has actually left the
army or the navy has even more
chance of rising than the mar who
remained in 1t. Moreover, often a !
man can do as I did ip~the Spanish |
War. even though not a West Point
er. s
This last point raises the question 7
about you going to West Point or An
and leaving the army Or navy s
you have served the regulation
years Ct think that Is the num-
ber) after graduation from the acad-
envy. Under this plan you would have
an excellent education n a ground
Ing discipline and, in some ways, a
testing of your capacity greater than
1 think you car get In any ordinary
college. On the other hand, except
for the profession of an engineer, you
would have had nothing like special
training, and you would be so ordered
about, and arranged for, that you
would have less independence Of
character than you could gain from
them. You would have had fewer
temptations; cut you would have had !
less chance to develop the qualities
which overcome temptations n show |
thai a mum mas lnulVluudl llllldiNo. !
Surprising you entered at seventeen,
with the intention of following this
course. The result would be that at
twenty-five you would leave the army
or navy without having gone through
any law school or any special tech
meal school of any kond. n would
start your life work three or four
years later than your schoolfellows or
today, who go to work Immediately
after leaving college. OF course, un-~
der such circumstances, o might
study law, for Instance, during the
four years after graduation: but my
own feeling Is that a mar does good
work chiefly when he Is in something
which he intends to make his perma-
nent work, and in which he Is deep
ly interested. Moreover, there will al
ways be the chance that the number
of officers in the army or navy will
be deficient. and that you would have
to stay In the service instead of getting
out when you wished.
I want you to think YER all these
matters very seriously. 1t would be q
great misfortune for you to start into
the army or la as a career, and
find that you had mistaken your de-
sires and had gone In without really
Weighing the matter.
You ought not to enter unless you
| feel genuinely drawn to the life as q
life-work. If so, go in; but not other
wise.
Mr.. Loeb told me today that at IT
he had tried for the army, but failed.
| The competitor who beat him In Is
| now O captain; Mr.. Loeb has passed