The Washington herald., 1921-06-29


tive works in the country says that
when he is employing a new man
he looks FIRST at the mans mother.
He doesn't so much as glance at his
father. Father may be souse, a
lazy loafer, a shiftless ne'er-do-wen.
It doesn't matter. Mother Is the
one who counts, .and II she is
hustIing. thrifty. up = and coming
woman, her son gets the job and,
nine times out ten he makes good
at It
Its mother who makes the man.
A rirne-old truth. Read history and
you viii ind that every great man
had a great mother. Look about
you, and you will see that every
successful self made" man. who
has risen from the bottom to the top
Of the ladder, is the son of a square
javed, steelly-eycd woman, who had
a backbone like a telephone post.
There is no record of the children
Ct baby dolls and butterfly women
ever getting anywhere except to
tea dance.
IT'S the mother who makes the
man Not alone because nature has
ceereed that sons shall inherit more
strongly from their mothers than
from their. fathers, but because
mothers influence in moulding hcr
children's characters is bound TO be
so much greater than a fathers.
During their plastic years a mother
is with her children continuously.
She forms their habits. She directs
their actions. She impresses her
principles upon them. She holds her
ideals before them. She makes
them what they are, just as surely
as the potter fashions the clay in
his hands to whatever form he wills.
There is no other one thing which
women try to dodge like they do
the responsibility Of motherhood
They try TO shift il on TO heredity.
Thsy attempt TO evade il by simply
refusing 20 accept it. and by turn
ing their children over to nurses
and governesscs to be brought up.
n they are rich. or leaving them to
grow up on the streets, if they are
poor.
They might as well try TO dodge
Sod and His eternal justice as the
respcnsibilities Of motheEhooc.
When He gives a woman children,
He makes her accountable for their
fate, and she must answer to Him
for the sort Of job she turns ort.
II isn't a cheerful thought for
elacker mothers, but it is one they
will do well 70 ponder this side OF
the Judgment bar.
Probably there isn't a mother in
the world, no matter how weak, and
silly. and selfish she is, who doesn't
want her children to grow up into
being fine men and women She
wants more She desires them to be
successful men and women. admired
and respected by their fellow crea-
lures. If mothers wishes were
magic that could summon fame and
riches to a baby's cradle by waving
wand over 1t. there's never boy
who wouldn't sit in the seats Of the
mighty. or girl who wouldn't
walk in silk attire.
But, alas. there are no fairy god
mothers bearing miraculous gifts
in these days. What we get, we
must fight for. and pay for with
blood and sweat, and there are not
maLy mothers who have the clear
sightedness to realize this, or the
grit to do the Spartan mother act,
and send their children into the
fray with the admonition that it Is
better to die in the thick of the
battle than to be a quitter.
Its tine mother who makes the
man" says the great employer Of
labor. He judges a man by his
mother. It's the mother who counts.
what sort of a mother are you?
What sort of a rating would your
boy get il he were judged by you?
What are you doing to fit him to
succeed in life?
xuff
bition7 Have you set some definite
goal before him, and made him feel
that he had to reach that before
he died. or else your ghost would
come back and reproacb him for
having failed you?
You can cultivate ambition in
child's mind until you make II a
driving power that carries him on
to a sure achievement, or you can
kill It out Most of US do the things
in life we set out to do, and that
those about US expect us to do.
Success is merely a matter of will
power. and it's up to a mother to
step on the gas and throw in the
clutch and get her children going
at high speed.
Between the poor mother, who
teachss her children to be envious
OF -ths rich, and anarchistic in their
sentiments. and to feel that fate has
given them a rotten deal, and the
mother who says to her boys that
this Is a free country with limitless
opportunities. and that il is for them
to go get what they want. is the
difference between the mother Of
failures and the mother of successes.
You can teach a boy that poverty
is a blighting curse, or you can
teach him that II is the stepping
stone to fortune because it trains
him in the qualities by which men
rise.
Are you teaching your boy good
habits? Not only the big moralities.
but the minor .moralities? Are you
teaching him to be industrious.
faithful, loyal. efficient? Not every
boy is endowed py nature with
great financial genius any more
than every boy is gifted with a
grand opera voice, but every man
can be a moderate success in busi-
ness and make a comfortable living
fer himself and his family IL he is
Industrious, and thrifty, and does
we'll whatever he undertakes to do.
BY the time a boy is 10 years old
his mother can have forged upon
him the unbreakable habit of indus
Try. She can have taught him to
hnd interest, excitement. thrill in do
rng some profitable work. She can
have taught him how to save pen
nies So that he may have dollars to
spend for some big thing he wants
and she can have taught him to do
-sfficiently whatever he undertakes.