A WARNING TO AMERICANS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 74, 10 November 1911, Page 8

A WARNING TO AMERICANS.

A characteristic speech was delivered a few weeks ago by Dr. Starr Jordan, the president of the Lcland Stanford University in California. J)r. Jordan was addressing a body of gradi nates at the conclusion of their university careers and ho warned them against waste of time in the affairs of life. “Let yonr competitors smoke,” ho said. “The man who succeeds is the man who knows how to use time. Life is a I>it short at the best, and it seems much shorter when you get on into the middle of it. Its effectiveness is measured in part by its length. Its length is measured not by years but by the part of it which wc use. We use only that part wo spend in sleep, in training, in play, in effective helpfulness. Smoking "does not come under any of these heads. Smoking is. our disguise for idleness.” Dr. Jordan expressed bis conviction that the use of a narcotic hy a man who needed “absolute trothl'iilness of nerve response” was a serious (dander and went on to lay down a rule of life. “.Rise early,” he said, “before yon are twenty-live if possible. The secret I of early rising is the saving of rime. To rise at twenty-live, (be tiling to do is to lie already thirty years old. j Not thirty years old in waste and cli. illusion, like some old young men wo know, but thirty years old through the saving of time, (tom idleness for thought and will and achievement.” In conclusion the famous American teacher preached the doctrine of work, “that tin? gods in return for labour I give ns nil good tilings.” Successive' (generations of men, he said, had boon j driven to realise that nothing worth I having was won except hy work. Ev-

cry country had its share ol “gilded paupers,” but they did not count in the eternal scheme ol things and the real workers could afford to carry them. Dr. Starr Jordan's graduation addresses famous in tiie United States and many young men have hud the foundations of great careers with Ids words in their cars.