Evening star., 1939-06-25

est IN cost. KNOW a woman IN new I Ork, tne
wife of an official to whom she is of great
assistance, who acquired her whole high
school and college education in night schools
while working daily as stenographer. Ones
hat must come off to grit such as that.
Many of us want to pursue scientific studies
that require special instruction and laboratory
work seemingly impossible to obtain except
in college. And others will want one of the
higher degrees now becoming so important in
certain lines. If you must have one of these,
can only recommend that you determine that
you will have it, and do not take no for an
answer could cite many examples of indomi
table perseverance for your inspiration: the
chap who walked all the way from the North
Carolina hills to my college in Indiana, for
example: who worked on farm miles out Of
town winter and summer during his four
years course to pay his way - walking to and
fro morning and afternoon, through all kinds
of weather.
And once knew young barber who, look
ing around for something better. decided to
be dentist. He had never even finished high
school, but he now did that in the evenings.
Then he entered dental college, making ar
rangements to work at barbershOp only in
the afternoons and on Saturday. He attended
lectures in the morning and did most Of his.
laboratory work at night. Meanwhile at every
opportunity, he studied books on English and
etiquette, and practiced both on his shop
patrons When he finally set up his office,
there were few more polished men in the pro-
fession than he.
Charles NJ Schwab the steel king, was
Pennsylvania country boy who had to 60 to
work at fifteen. At eighteen he found a job
in the steel works at Homestead, where he
might have remained puddler all his life if he
had not had ambition and determination. To
know how to make steel requires much knowl
edge of chemistry. and Schwab set himself to
study it. He was married at twenty-one, and
his wife became his schoolmistress He has
told me humorously what a strict one she
was she brooked few excuses He set up
laboratory at home. and labored in it every
evening Not only did he become great steel
maker, but he gave himself culture likewise
and became a distinguished figure in business
and society, polished and delightful public
speaker.
There are no people in America who, as
group, 50 eagerly crave education as the folk
of our southern mountain region, and none
who, in the past - and to great extent even
in the present - have had so poor an oppor-
tunity to acquire it. Children today are walk
ing four and five miles to school - occasionally
even farther than that - often through rain
and mud and snow, starting in mldwinter be-
fore dawn and reaching home after nightfall.
And some of these youngsters later succeed in
wangling their way through some college in
the mountain area that accepts work in pay
ment for board and tuition and come forth to
be teachers. minister's lawyers. business peo-
pie, scientific farmers perhaps even statesmen.
Cordell Hull is one of them. Fifty years ago,
when he was rafting logs down the Cumberland
River and picking up an education between .
times, you would have called him hillbilly;
but no one would think of applying any rustic
epithet now to this scholarly statesman whose
influence is felt on both American continents
- even in both hemispheres.
Few of us may rise to the heights of the mem
have mentioned, but their achievements are
marks for us to shoot at, and their doggeC
perseverance is worthy pattern for our
emulation Education can be yours if you want
it badly enough and are willing to maxi
sacrifices for it, as did the majority of the
great men and women of history.