The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-05
Getting Out of It
BylDR FRANIk onAl11

"rm going to give .ups mys job,T said sd young man to me the other day
 Now his position was an enviable one f He had good salary and could hold hin place. during good behasior. He Eis fixed for life. He had comfortable home with wife and baby. His wo1S hours were short, allowing him plenty q leisure ties while important, were such as he could easily discharge. The office, of which he was the head, practically ran itself, so well had he organized and sys-- tematized it.
 host of other young fellows looked on him with covetousness. He was considered lucky dog. He had arrived.
 Naturally I asked him why he wanted to quit. f, sY- s.. sssss Z:
 After reflecting a bit, to see if he could make himself understood, he said:
 "well, the trouble is, I'm out of it."
 T did understand. g He was a real and an unspoiled soul, and to such to be out of it means to miss life What does it mean to be out of ity It simply means not to be pittins ones self against hazard or fate, or luck or destiny, if you like, in gaining 2 liveli- hood.
 To a normal healthy man life is best when it is something of game ss q ! that, all you have to do to De provided for all your days is to be careful and not to be iupudent to your employer, is something like shooting setting hens instead of flying ducks.
 Very little good work. in the world has been done by men in sfnecures.
 | The telegraph, the phonograph, the cine matograph, the sewing machine, the steei- wool-rubber the automobile, the card in- dex system, the fountain pen--vhat upi- versailles or technology. institutes protected them? a.ts
 What literary scholarship produced . Kipling a Bernard Shaw, 8 Maupassant, | a Wagner or a Giotto?
 And as for religion, St. Paul and Savo- harold, Luther, Knox and Wesley. Gen. eral Booth and Mrs. Eddy were only sue cessful q speak only of their results, IT am no judge of their rightness) when they cut loose from all safety and risked ridi- cule, starvation or worse. ss
 Of all the people in the great business house the man who is getting the most out of life is the man who is at the head, carrying the responsibility, not knowing whether tomorrow will bring or gain, put ting his brain against all the chances of failure. @ NJ i I wonder if socialists eyer suspect that if their fondest dreams should be realized and every man should have q good job, the fun of the thing would be taken out.
 Of course. uncertainty of employment has it's ugly side. But it is the ugly side of things that make man a man. some souls are cowed by the whip of fortune but there are others that are stung to courage and ac- tion..
 To take away danger might save the weak, but it would ruin the strong.
 f We have often wondered why poets and artists and musicians are proverbiAlly hungry; we do not realize the psychologi- hQf rin uH good work.
 To get the best work ont of the highest types of minds you must throw them into the water and tell them to survivor drown. ~
 < And this young man felt out of it, out of the big, bully, mar-struggle. He. wanted to fight. He didn't want sugar plums A He, too, felt the call of the spirit of life that ever says to the protected pets she loves and would make strong men of, .'one thing thou lackest. Sell all thy hast and. give to theS poor. and come fol- low amet' .s4Na .:2 e-ssss