Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1926-04-22
WHAT TO DO TO MAKE
LIFE WORTHWHILE
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must be the same with regard to
every other industry. It must
be true of manufacturing, mer-
chandising and every other SINH
lar activity, and for the same
reasons that it is true in trans
portation.
Obviously, the reason why
college men are not sought by
transportation companies is be-
cause they know nothing about
transportation. They come from
their studies knowing, one might
say, almost everything except
what, if they are to be trans
portation workers, they should
know. They may, be long on
Greek, fat on Latin, crammed
with mathematics, on speaking
terms with philosophy a n d
stuffed with history, economics,
literature and many other sub
jects but they cannot run loco
motive, fire a freight engine, dis
patch trains, make out tariff
schedule or a timetable. A man
who can operate the levers in a
signal tower knows more about
railroading than the whole crew
of them. He learned what he
knows about railroading while
they were in college learning
something else.
Now, the rewards of modern
industry are for those who know
how to make modern industry
function in the best possible man.
ner. Whoever would get these
rewards must be a man of facts.
He must know his business.
What he does not know about
something else will have abso-
lutely no bearing upon his sue
cess in his particular field, which
will always be in exact proportion
to his special knowledge of that
field.
The best way to learn how
to do anything is to do it. If
you want to learn how to sing,
don't take a mail order course,
read all it's literature, and not
make a noise until you think you
are ready to appear in grand
opera; don't do that-fill your
lungs, disregard the neighbors,
and sing. You will make some
kind of a squawk, anyway, and
any kind of a noise is a step to-
ward singing. So it is with rail
reading or anything else: The
best place to learn railroading
is on railroad. The best place
to learn manufacturing is in a
manufacturing establishment. If
zone cannot learn thing where
it is, being done he. certainly cam
not learn it where it is not being
done. And what this world
wants is men who know how to
do things. That is because things
have to be done in order to serve
the world with material goods.
Anyone can serve you who can
do the thing you want done, even
though he knows how to do
nothing else, but no one can
serve you who cannot do the
thing you want done, even
though he should know how to do
everything else in the realm of
industry.
Nor is this an argument in ia
vor of limiting the knowledge
of man to the requirements of
his particular occupation. 1t is
not an argument of any sort. 1t
is an effort to straighten thought.
1t is an attempt to prevent peo-
pie from going to the delicatessen
when what they really want can
be found only at the hardware
store two blocks up the street.
When Yale tells the world that
college is apparently no place to
learn how to run a railroad, you
should be able. to tell yourself
that it is no place to learn any,
thing connected with. the opera
ton of industry. The place to
learn about industry is in indu-
stry. Whoever goes to college to
make money will not make it.
And whoever neglects to equip
himself to earn a reasonable