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P 7RE is an interesting letter from a
father of seven children:
May 31, 1919.
To the Editor of The
v Sundan American:
Dear Sir—Wishing you
will excuse my liberty in ad-
R dressing you, and hoping you
will give tnis letter proper consideration 1
thank you in advance.
Before coming to the point, it is necessary to
prefix some preliminaries. 1 landed in this
country aboui fourteen years ago with an ele
mentary education in Italian, but no krowledge
at all of English. A little after a year I sent
for my wife and three children, whom I had
left dith my parents; four more children have
bheen born in this country. Of these seven
shildren, the first two boys (twins) will gradu
tte from High School (Academic Course); the
third boy has finished one year of his com
mercial coursc; the fourth boy is in the
grammar school, 6B; two little girls in 48 and
3B and the ysungest boy in 18. lam working
and, whiie muking goed, I had to struggle very
tard to bring the family to this point.
Now the reason why I am addressing you is
because I owe so mucl of my knowledge of -
English to your paper, especially your
editorials, which encouraged me so much that
to-day I dare io ask you: What can I do wi'h
my boys? Ido not want any philanthropic aid.
" I simply wish that you will consider the question
and answer me in one of your Sunday editorials.
It will benefit me and perhaps many more
parents who desire that their children go on to
higher studies, but cannot afford it.
Again I thank you and I remain your faith
ful reader. A. AFRICANOQ.
» *~ *
The letter that you read here is sent by the sort
of citizen this country needs. It is also the kind of
citizen that foolish legislation would shut out from this
country on the theory that a land not one guarter
populated has too many people in it.
This man comes to &: United States, brings up
his children, sends them tg the high school, works hard
year after year in order to add good citizens to the
population of the United States. His only thought now
is HOW HE CAN DO MORE FOR THEM, how he can
give them a beiter equipment to serve the conntry as
good citizens.
What greater service could a man render to the
nation than this?
We select the story of David and Goliath, the story
of the Jewish youth that slew the Philistine giant, and
make of that story the text for an answer to the ques
tion our reader asks.
Saul, the ruler, sent young David out to fight, as
many rich fathers send their sons, UNWISELY
equipped. In the first book of Samuel, XVII. Chapter,
you read:
“And Saul armed David with his armour,
and he put an helmet of brass upon his head;
also he armed him with a coat of mail.
+ “And David girded his sword upon his
armour, and he assayed to go; for he had*not
proved it. And David said unto Seul, I cannot
go with these; for I have not proved them. And
David put them off him.”
Observe the wisdom of the young man. He did
not want to undertake his fight against the giant with
weapons that he couldn’'t use well. Read the thirty
ninth verse of that seventeenth chapter.
The armor that Saul offered to young David and
that the young man wisely refused, knowing that he
couldn't use it to advantage, suggests the so-called
‘‘college education,’’ which is very often an education
in foolishness that so many rich men give to their sons,
thinking that they have equipped them for life’s strug
gle, when really they have loaded them down with dis
advantages.
Young David, the champion fighter of the Bible,
knew what he wanted. The story goes:
“And he took his staff in his hand, and chose
him five smooth stones out of the brook, and
put themr in a shepherd’s bag which he had,
even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand;
and he drew ncar to the Philistine.”
David did not start out to meet the giant with a
great military equipment of armor, helmet and sword.
e took the five smooth stones from the brook and a
sling, such as the poorest boy might have as he had
them, and then with ONE of the stones he attended to
the business in hand.
Verse 49 tells what happened:
“And David put his hand in his bag, and
took thence a stone, and slang it and smote the
Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk
into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to
the earth.”
80 much for the stoxx of young David, who won an
{mmortal reputation and the first place among old and
young fighters in the simplest possible way.
The picture that the artist, Mr. McCay, puts before
you here shows that the thing can be done in the same
manner by the youth of to-day starting out to meet the
giant Failure.
Mr. McCay has labelled his five smooth stones in
this picture ‘‘Honesty, Courage, Perseverance, Ble
cerity, Ambition."’
All of ¢hese a young man may have without going
to college; without having specially learned people to
tutor him; without having a rich father to allow him
several years of idleness, accumulating information that
may or may not be of use later.
This is a good selection of qualities; smooth, round,
useful teones that may be found, kept and used by puy
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This Picture and Editorial Are Prepared to Answer a |
Father’s Question, “What Shall I Do with My Boys?” !
What Young David Did to the Giant Goliath, Each |
Youth Mast Do to the Giant FAILURE, the Giant That Faces l
Us All and Threatens Us All as We Start Out in Life.
When David Went up to Meet Goliath, He Took in His |
ATLANTA, GA.,, SUNDAY, JUNE 15, 1919
Bag Only Five Small Stones, Not a Whole Quarry. He
Picked Out Those Stones Carefully, Smooth and Round.
Then, with ONE Stone He Made a Hole in the Giant’s Fore
head, Stretched Him Out, and Cut Off His Head.
What David Did to Goliath Young Men Can Do to the
Giant Failure, if They Select Carefully the Weapons, That Is,
THE MENTAL QUALITIES, with Which to Work.
,youns man. Some time, as in the case of the youthful
| David, one single stone will do the work. More often
| it takes several.
i It was one pebble that killed Goliath. But it took
}more than one quality to send young David out against
him,
; He had ambition; that sets everything going. The
i friend who writes will do more for his sons if he plants
| ambition in their minds than he would do if he sent
'them first to a fashionable boys’ school, then to an
American university, then to Oxford or Cambridge,
Ambition is to a young man what the engine is to
an autemobile. Without the engine the automobile
amounts to little, no matter how nicely you paint it or
how soft you make the cushions.
The artist has suggested hers, undoubtedly, the
qualities most important to success. These combined
in the right sort of mind produce a gixth quality, SELF
CONFIDENCE, the deep-rooted belief that you CAN
NOT fail
Young David possessed self-cShfidence. And, inci
dentally, many of the half-way prejudiced failures of
this day will observe that it is possessed to a wonderful
extent by David's relations, the modern Jews, espe
-clally those that come from Russia.
As he went along with the five smooth pebbles, and
the sling that was to end the giant’s career, you could
tell by David's conversation that he knew he was going
to win.
Read another few lines from that Seventeenth Chap
ter of Samuel: :
“This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine
hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head
from thee; and | will give the carcases of the host
of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the
air, and to the wild beasts of the earth.”
Sure enough, just a few minutes later, the giant
was down with a pebble in his forehead; David who
had come out without a sword, was pulling the giant's
own sword from the scabbard, cutting the giant's hsad
ofl'withxtmdtakin;gitbzckto;hownto&ulm
ruler, .. O
David, who became a great King, snoceeded, as most
of the world’s great men have done, with a limited
‘equipment. If he had gone out to meet Goliath loaded
down with the armor that Saul wanted to put ¢on him,
the gidnt would have crushed him with a blow; David
could not have moved about under the heavy weight
put upon him. .
- Many a young man whose parents think they have
done overytiing for him have really loaded him down
with care, money, praise, winding up with a college
education. Then they send him out into the world, and
if the m;;glg of money does not last he ends as worker
for somebody that started out with nothing.
This is not to say that education wisely directed,
not overdone, combined with sufficient ambition sad
stimulation, is not a good thing.
But just as it is easier to succeed in spite of poverty
than to suoceed in spite of wealth, so it is easier to sue
ceed in spite of a limited education than it is in spite
of a complex education, with flattery, self-indulgence
and many years of easy life going with the complex
education. S 9. 9
The main thing is to have a simple equipment and
to know how to use it.
Young David had trained his eye and his right arm,
He knew how to use that sling; how to hurl the stones
that he picked from the brook. That was all the knowl
edge he needed for the work he had to do.
The young man who starts out in this picture meets
the Giant Failure at every turn of the mountainous
road of life. A half dozen good qualities, kept in good
working order, with freedom from vice, self-indulgence,
and dissipation, will take him through.
The man whose letter we print asks advice as to
what to do with his sons. First teach them to work
hard and to like work. Teach them that idleness is dis
grace, and to be ashamed of any kind of work is a
worse disgrace,
Keep carefully out of their minds the notion that
what was good enough for their father is not good
enough for them.
Make them realize that so far they have been m
sites, living on others, living on their father's
work.
Make them know if you can that it is their duty to
begin the hard work now and to add to what men have
done and to what they know.
Tell them that the world does NOT owe every man
a living, just as the lake does not OWE ovuz man a
fish. The lake is there and the fish are there. GO AND
CATCH THEM.
Buoccess is the easiest, simplest thing imaginable, in
the case of a normal human being with normal health.
Yon may make success diffifi:lt by giving the child
an exaggerated idea of ils own Maportance. No parents
do this more frequently than foreign-born parents an
xious to make their children ‘‘better’’ than they were.
You cannot make a son better than a hard-working
father, for there is not anything better.
You may give him advantages of education, but if
you give him knowledge without ambition, training
and tio constant pressure of necessity, you will do him
no favor, but run the risk of making him worthless,
As regards college education, remember that coh
leges do not EDUCATE. They give a young man less.
ure in which he may absorb education or not, as he
chooses. Merely reading books, history, chemistry,
.lunguages and other branches of knowledge mochani
cally does not make an educated man.
Every child of the man whose letter we print will
‘have before he leaves high school more education than
' Thomas A, Edison had when he began to make himself
'useful to the world; more than Heury Ford had when
ihe started out to build his fortune of millions and his
| big payrolls; more than Columbus had wher he came
to America ; infinitely more than young David had when
his courage made him say: ‘‘l can kill the giant and
| I will,”” and also made him king.