Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-11-21
COLLEGE Grad
NOT AFRAID OF
MANUAL WORK
Bates President De-
clares in Letter to In
VentOr Edison
Electrical Wizard Has Wrong
Slant on Inclinations of Men
Who Absorb Higher Learn
ing-Says Edison Himself to
Blame in Creating Electrical
Age Not Yet Grasped

Lewiston, Maine, Nov. 2O.-Presi-
| dent Clifton D. Gray of Bates COL
| lege is in accord with statement
| recently made by Thomas A. Edison,
the inventor, that the main qualifi-
, cation for success is ambition, with
| a will to work, but differs sharply
with his statement that the college
! man objects to work, especially il it
is dirty.
DR.. Gray read at chapel today a
copy of letter he had mailed to Mr..
Edison, as follows:
Recent dispatches in the public
| press quote you as making a new
| set Of observations on the general
ineffectiveness Of college men in in
dustry. With one of your statements
l am in the heartiest accord, name
~ that the main qualification for
success is ambition. with a will to
work. This explains, better than
anything else, the conquests of SUI
| per-men, like yourself, in the realm
Of nature. There is no wizardry
| about it. as you would be the first
| to admit. With college education
or without, the will to work is the
shortest road to substantial achieve
ment.
ION the other hand, I must diff
fer sharply with your statement that
the college man objects to work, es-
pecially ii it is dirty. 1t is probably
| true that some of the sons Of $780,
OOQ-a-year men do not take to rough
work. They burn midnight gas;
their fathers burned midnight oil.
Don't blame the colleges if the
sons are averse to taking a course
| in the University of Hard Knocks
from which their dads were gradu-
ated summa cum laude. The dads
are more to blame.
You, Mr.. Edison, are yourself
| partly to blame in that you have
ushered us into an electrical age so
rapidly that we have not had time
to make the necessary moral read
justments to method of living in
which our initiative is largely re-
duced to pushing buttons-and you
do the rest.
1.-THE most obvious difficulty with
your position as reported in the
press is that you have fallen into
the age-old error of taking the part
for the whole. Flossie- boys (pardon
this out-of-date slang) are but one
type of young men seeking a college
education. There are literally scores
| of colleges were this type is almost
| unknown. More than half of the
boys here are earning part or all
of their way through college, and
except for possibly their number,
Bates is no exception. These fellows
are not afraid to look dirt in the
face. A twelve-hour day doesn't
faze them. You must have played in
hard luck to have employed so many
of the other kind
believe me. Mr.. Edison, there are
thousands of young men now in COL
lege who are practising the gospel
Of hard work. If you will only slow
| up bit in your marvellous harness.
ing Of the powers Of nature. possibly
the coming generation will not make
the same mistake with their sons
that is being made by so many of our
contemporaries. who have been un-
prepared to cope with the moral
periIs to individual initiative in an
age Of electricity suddenly imposed
| upon a civilization steam heated to
the point of enervation.
Give us time to catch up with
you!
with the highest appreciation of
your Aladdin-like contributions to
the material comfort and prosperity
Of the twentieth century, believe
! me-" etc.