Norwich bulletin., 1920-04-16
VALUE OF HARDSHIP IN TRAINING TO MANLINEss

1 had ever been done before. He work ed overtime and extra hard whey emergencies arose, and never put in any kick about wanting higher pay for doing that work. Wherefore and because of which two things, he went up notch within a year at bigger pay. He took that new work in the same spirit; did it better than it had been done. Wherefore, again, he was | boosted to 8 still better place in three I years; to another better yet soon af- l ter, each time with bigger pay. | Wherever he was he did his best and
 made good. All this time he was | steadily aiming at still more pay and plea santer work. But-and here's l the great. lesson of it all-he aimed to
 assure himself of that larger wage ] and that pleasanter work by first
 demonstrating that he deserved it
 From a local reputation he came un- 1 der the watchful attention of the roads central managers, and they called him to join them. He did so and there repeated his programme of doing his assigned work so well that I it's accomplishment would prove his | fitness for even greater responsibility And now he is general, manager of the l Michigan Central lines, holding the
 best position and highest rank the
 roao mas III It's gl1t.
 But you'll notice that he. began this lfclimb twenty eight years ago. Is any other freight clerk or other railroad empoye beginning that game now? 1 Certainly hope so, but somehow. the
 fact hasn't got into the newspapers What gets into the newspapers is the
 quite different fact that thousands
 are constantly striking on any pretext l no TarpfpXt rly nd bigger pay in their. present jobs.
 There's world wide difference be-
 tween campaigning for better pay by
 showing ability to earn it, and de-
 manding higher pay because of as-
 sumed power to confiscate it. The
 one process makes for prosperity and
 safeguards civilization: the other pro-
 cess hamstrings prosperity and en-
 dangers civilization.
 Yet, after all. the present state of
 semi anarchy in the world is only the
 natural result of our own conduct. For
 too many years we have been preach
 ing and practising the gospel of Mol Elycoddle. Fool fathers and mothers
 have been deliberately bringing up
 their children to expect and desire lives of ease rather than of useful la , bor. My children shall not have to work as hard as I did" How many
 times we have heard that! And so they have been sheltered and cosseted
 and coddled and softened, in a desire to- protect them from the hardships which made men out of their fathers. Years ago on one of my hills two !, ! stocky pines grew side by side and not over three feet apart Just be-
 hind the two and no greater distance from either, shot up lady birch. The
 three trees grew rapidly, and the in I hr>-lY Y1OhN Nf a sort of cradle which Steadied and supported the birch. Not long ago I
 had occasion for the boards one of the pines would make and so cut it. In Its fall 1t tore away many of the , branches of the other pine, leaving
 that lady birch unsupported And the birch couldn't hold itself up. Slowly it , sWayed over till it's slender, gleaming 2 trunk was bent into a half circle and its top lay on the ground fifty feet from it's base. l had to cut it. too. to get it out of the way, and found it practically worthless for anything. If
 wasn't even decent fuel.
 , Simply because all it's life it had been kept up by those two pines. it had never gathered enough strength r to hold itself erect when they failed 2 1t. And the world is full of Weakline
 human beings whose spinelessness is g l comparabla to that of this unfortu- nate birch, and for the same reasons, t The old Hebrew prophet warned his | people that they who sowed the wind : should reap the whirlwind We're be- : ginning to see, now that it's too late e l what sort of fruit we may expect S from the poison vine we've cultivated e and rourished and ,mollycoddled SC d long.
 To my mind one of the chiefest val. ues of the country life, one of the ar.
 guments for it which should be mos f alluring to real men, is that it com. d pels you to earn your dinner before e you can eat it. It is not an easy-go. g ing life. So long as men hold them h selves superior to clans this shoulC y be rated merit and not drawback = It compels to energy and forethough n and thrift. It is a school in whicl e hardship is the teachers ferule,. unde d whose temporarily painful ministra 1t tions traits of self control and self Is education and outstanding strengtl " develop. Develop as naturally and in b evitably as their opposites do in th
 hothouses and sun -parlors too man
 of us seem to regard as more desira E ble forcing grounds.
 l. This last winter has been a har Ie one on the hills and backroads of Ney k, England. But, now that it is past an, st it's discomforts zone with, we farmer k are congratulating ourselves becaus if tha thick snow has nrOfectad fhc co;