College Men Without Money. Carl Brown Riddle

LANES OF USEFULNESS BEBE BOSWELL

       ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE WILLING HEART GLENN DAFT

       DIFFICULTIES PREPARE FOR REAL WORK ERMIL B. FRYE

       PLUCK RATHER THAN LUCK F. D. HENRY

       POVERTY IS NOT HIS MASTER BYRON E. JOHNSON

       DEFEAT DOES NOT MEAN FAILURE ROBERT JOHNSON, JR.

       “START RIGHT” WALTER A. JOHNSON

       THE REAL QUESTION H. E. JORGENSON

       WILLINGNESS TO WORK A GREAT ASSET ALLEN L. MOORE

       KEEP ON TRYING PAUL P. OMAHART

       OPTIMISM IS AN ASSET EDGAR B. OXLEY

       THE DESIRE FOR SOMETHING BETTER FRED I. PATRICK

       DETERMINATION VERSUS POVERTY LEROY W. PORTER

       THE REAL NEEDS OF THE WORLD CARL E. RANKIN

       THE ONE WHO SUCCEEDS IS THE ONE WHO TRIES MARGARET HELEN SCURR

       THE HELP YOURSELF CLUB ALBERT ELDON SELLARS

       THE HOW AND THE WHY R. F. SHINN

       MAKING USE OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY SHEPPARD O. SMITH

       EDUCATION WORTH THE PRICE MARY E. WEST

       WORK NO CLASS BARRIER LUCILE WRIGHT

       PART III

       HOW TO WORK ONE’S WAY THROUGH COLLEGE

       DOES A COLLEGE EDUCATION PAY?

PREFACE

       Table of Contents

      Having entered the preparatory schools with 94 cents, and college with less, and knowing that the greater number of those who control the affairs of the nation and who strive to make the country better, are men and women who did likewise, the thought for this book entered my mind. The first aim was to collect matter from students only, but this was changed. The main part of the book contains articles from college and university graduates. The last part of the book contains contributions from students now in college, and shows how the actual thing of working one’s way through college or university is being done. A few of the articles which go to make this volume were used as a special series in the Raleigh Times, Raleigh, North Carolina, and requests from various parts of the country were received by the compiler for the production of the series.

      The object of the compiler is not to praise the merits of those who have succeeded, but to point a moral to young men and women who desire an education and have small means. A prominent editor says: “The history of college education among English speaking people is now about one thousand years old. It began with the University of Oxford in England, which has been in existence a decade of centuries. It has spread to many lands, but in all lands it has been about the same to the poor boy. It can be truly said that he has never seen an age or a country or a college where he had an easy time in getting his diploma. It has always been a fearful struggle for him, and it will doubtless continue to be. But it is also true that the brightest pages, the very brightest, in all our long educational history are those that record the triumphs of the poor boy. And his triumphs are written throughout that great period. He has demonstrated a thousand times over that ‘where there is a will there is a way,’ that ‘poverty does not chain one to the soil.’”

      So, my efforts have been to help rather than to praise, to make the past a great light for the future, and to pave the way for more college men not blessed with wealth. If this volume serves to aid one in these directions I shall be glad.

      To Professor W. P. Lawrence, Professor E. E. Randolph, Professor R. A. Campbell and President W. A. Harper, of the Elon College Faculty, the compiler is greatly indebted for their faithful service in the preparation of this work; also to many others who offered suggestions and advice.

      C. B. Riddle.

       Elon College, N. C.

       March 16, 1914.

PART I

       Table of Contents

A MOTHER’S DESIRE REALIZED

       FORREST B. AMES, B.A.

       Table of Contents

      Before the close of my high school course I faced two proposals, acceptance of one of which would cause me to go to college; the other would set me to work. The first was this: provided I would live at home in Bangor and go back and forth daily to the University of Maine in Orono (a ride of about fifty minutes on the electric car) I was offered about half of the expenses of my entire college course. The second was—work.

      Thanks to my mother’s influence and the fact that I wanted a college education, I had no hesitation in accepting the first proposal. Thus I came to belong, not to a class of “college men with no money,” but rather to that of “college men with little money.” The essential difference is one of degree only, provided there is present a true determination to secure a college education.

      Why did I go to college? To a great extent because of my mother’s influence; because of her who could not conceive of her sons as non-college men. She thus constantly encouraged us to go to college regardless of whether we had to earn all or part of our way. In addition to this ever-present influence I was a somewhat imaginative and philosophical lad. It seemed to me that just as a hill was made not merely for climbing, but that the climber should be rewarded for his attempt by the beautiful view of broader countries seen from the summit; even so a college education was designed, not to be a stumbling block to the youth of our country, but rather to serve as a means of intellectual elevation from which should open up visions of greater things in life. These two things made me become a “college man with little money,” who was ready to do any honest work to make up the financial deficiency.

      How did I earn my way