The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-11-19

Will A Peairs of Des Moines, Ia., who has spent most of his time In Mex ico since 1886, was in Birmingham yes- terday and he discussed interestingly the plan which he says is meeting with much favor among business men, news papers and educators wherever if Is suggested.
 RICH COUNTRY
 Mexico is one of the richest coup- tries in the world" said MT. Peatrr. "It Is upon the dawn of one of the great est eras of prosperity ever experienced by any nation. We of the United States want the friendship of these people. We want their future trade which is going to become greater and greater.
 -scme tine ago I suggested to the American Chamber of Cor-
 neree of Mexico, of which am .
 saembcr, that 1t would be B great
 help In the relations of the two
 countries if . number of the ccun-
 try's ye~ng Hea were placed in our
 educational iastitutisns te get their
 training. The idea met with ,p-
 stunt favor. Already nunerer.
 schools in the United States have
 offered seAolarskirs for this pur-
 pose. Among then the University
 of Alabama has offered six.
 But the feature which I should like to emphasize in community like Bir- mingham is the need in many cases for business concerns to give these hcys employment for half their time while they are in school to assist them in their school work. The boys who will De sent are worthy. They are selected py competitive examinations both physical and mental A good many of them, while worthy, are sons of poor parents, and they will need to supple ment their income to remain in school even though the school has provided their tuition.
 BUSINESS ASSET
 "As . future business asset to the
 people of the United States to have
 these intelligent young Mexican. educated here, believe the plan
 offers invaluable advantages. They
 will go hack home as friends of
 thts country. They will in future
 yeare no doUbt Dc in position to
 direct much of the foreign trade of
 their country. That such trade will
 be diverted to their former frfends
 fs the most natural tAiax in the
 world. Ht %&
 As an example of what the average Mexican boy can do if given an op- portunity. cite this: A friend of mine In Mexico City, an American, had a poor peon as janitor to clean up his of flee from day to day. One day the pecn asked him if he couldn't bring his son to the office to help in such odd jobs as might develop about the place. He came and assisted as messenger or in anything that was to be done At odd times he learned to operate a type- writer and studied stenography on the side Three months later my friends stenographer was missing one day when he had some urgent mail, and the boy asked to let him try 1t. He took down the days mail and got out the letters in good shape. This. mind you, was after only three months spent in a business office There Is DO tellin, what these boys can do If they ara given real opportunities in American schools. Practically all of them have good smattering of English, and in that respect have the advantage of our own boys, most of whom pay little at- tention to Spanish.
 BIRMINHAM'S CHGANCE
 Birmingham, which is constantly de- veloping it's foreign trade, should be especially interested in this plan. I be- lieve in it so sincerely that am spend ing three months at my own expense travelling all over the United States to interest our people in this method of getting better acquainted and on bet ter terms with our southern neighbor." Anyone interested In the subject can get further information by writing to Will A. Peairs. 3125 Kingman boule-