Evening star., 1939-06-25

platform and been handed diploma - and
his mother and his father and all his relatives
would have been on hand to applaud him.
But he never got to college. He never
finished high school. When he was halfway
through his second year there his father lost
his job, and the boy had to 60 to work.
thought of him this month when colleges
were having their commencements and over
million young men and women were getting
their diplomas. And thought of the many
millions of other boys and girls - basically
Just as intelligent - who never got to college,
who never had chance even to finish high
school,
Probably most of them feel the same way
about it - that it wasn't their fault they
couldn t get an education, and that therewasn't
much of anything they could do about it.
But wait minute! Abraham Lincoln once
remarked that all the schooling he had did
not amount to more than year." Lincoln
knew that true education is something that
you build for yourself and make part of your
being Some of the best educated most cul
tured men and women have ever known
never even got into high school.
Take the case of my friend Elmer r. Jones.
He's president of Wells Fargo & Company;
but he began life as poor boy who couldn't
even get through grammar school. He had to
quit at about the fifth grade and 60 to work.
There wasn't anything he could do about it,
either, but as soon as he had saved enough
money from his job in an express office, he
bought set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
and evening after evening he plodded through
it, filing all the corners of his mind with its
vast store of knowledge. There were scientific
pages 50 complicated that he could not under
stand them, but he bore down hard on the
philosophy, history, geography, biography,
languages, the arts and the general informa-
tion From the encyclopaedia he got leads to
other books that he could find in the public
libraries He cultivated taste for good music
and art.
Largely because he was student, because
he never ceased learning, he won promotion
after promotion When Wells Fargo sent him
to southern California, he found that knowl-
edge of Spanish would be useful 50 he bought
a grammar and dictionary, took evening les
sons, conversed in Spanish at every oppor-
tunty until finally he was able to speak the
language almost like native. His mind was
50 disciplined by this time that it was not very
difficult for him later to learn German and
Italian without a teacher. -
Eventually Elmer r. Jones's seif-hewn
education helped him into the high positionhe
holds today - that of president Of Wells
Fargo & Company And that education was
the kind anyone in America. rich or penniiess.
could afford.
Yet millions say they have no opportunity
for education. They haven't the time. they
haven't the means. Neither did DR.. Wilberforce
Eames, the great photographed. who died not
long ago. He was delivering groceries before
he was twelve Yet without even night
school to aid him, just by his own hard digging,
he became the worlds greatest authority on
the books of the past, and was honored by the
learned societies of Europe. He became re-
markable linguist, too. having not only such
languages as Chinese, Japanese and Sanskrit
in his repertoire, but even some of the African
native dialects.
True, we can't all be Eameses; andit is a fact
that a formal course of instruction. admins
tered by teacher, is the best way for most of
us to acquire knowledge. III admit that But
there are correspondence courses. and in the