Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-06-22
Something to Help Us


In a recent issue Of Golfers were
these words: "a square deal and an
equal chance for every boy and girl
up to the end Of childhood. And
thereafter, higher education only for
those who have earned it.
Among the students with whom
our colleges are now bullying are too
many rich young idlers, and too
many poorer men who virtually ac-
cept college training as a charity
and loaf four years at the states
expense. While outside, crowding
vainly at the gates, are hosts OF
earnest, ambitious young men and
women, who, as things stand now,
will never get a chance. A college
should be neither q rich mans, club
nor a poor mans asylum. but a self
sustaining enterprise" thorough
ly indorse every word of it; I am
not sure how it can be worked out.
The rich mans son may appear to
be idling when really he may be
letting his leisure be sunshine that
is storing away something vitality i'm
portant to be used when needed lust
as coal in the. heart of a mountain
has been called "materialiZed sun
shine" - The coal is sometimes so
near the surface that any one can
get it, and in other places one may
have to dig for it. And all this
brings to mind another fact, people
must discover the coal. There are
men and women in your town or
community possessing qualities the
world needs, but nobody has "dis'
covered" them, perhaps they have
not discovered" themselves; but
there are others in the same group
SO filled with vanity that they will
tackle a buzz saw, and run things
in the ground if there is not some
body with sense enough to take the
actual management out of such
hands and let that sort hold the
light.
1t goes to the head of some peo-
pie to be given prominence. the
vacuum in that head, the place that
should be filled with gray matter
just "s1oshes" around the one idea,
II must show Off"
There are people who can make
success working for others, but
can't do a thing on their own initia-
tive, but that class invariably can
tell one the best method for any.
lIl-IISs i hIIOW OIlS VI ILlciL SUI L IIIclI
would have the nerve to tell Mr..
Ford or Mr. Edison how to improve
things, but you never see this Peter
Turnbledown improving his own con-
ditiCn, nor surroundings.
Every year L see young people
in school and regret that there is
not some law to put them to work
its the square peg in the round
hole. And every year I see young
boys and girls hungering after
knowledge and no way to get it.
What would I do? 1 would have a
standard in every school-not the
cut and dried patterns that are now
used. I'd get somebody with COM
mon sense enough to see whether
the mental soil was fitted for or
anges and grapes or for corn and
beans. Then, if the physical force
did not meet the requirements, I'd
see why the steam generator was
not working. If it should be a
case Of just general laziness, trif1e-
ness, or cussedness, I'd put that
youngster in a place where he or
she would be compelled to work or
suffer hunger, and take the money
that had been appropriated by par
ent, or state, and put one of the
right sort in school. Drastic meas
ures, and you may say there is a
bit of socialism in it, but you no.
tice that / give each one a chance
to make good. There might be a
wedding out of teachers, more of
the Miss Martha Berry type would
get interested, and some of the gen.
tlemen loafers or girls filling in time
long enough to get good clothes, be
eliminated, for really fine specimens
would be utrned out of such schools.
1 heard a boy say, Il am going
to be graduated from a good school
if I live to be forty years old, and
can work my way"
I thought then Of boys idling in
school that should be between the
pillow handles, in a shop or somehow
earning the money for this boy. We
hear of substitutes in the army, why
not substitutes in school?
Compulsory education is a step in
the right direction. There should
be no illiterates. There are schools,
fine ones, for the mentally defective.
and there should be a plan to make
the physically fit help the world by
helping some other one furnish the
sort of education that will help hui
mainly.
Lately, the press has harped on