Edison Scholarship

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 17, 7 November 1930, Page 30

Edison Scholarship

pO \ od ‘Trying Character . Test ME. EDISON®A true to his role as 2 master-inventor, has put quite unusual punch into this year’s series of © posers to determine the recipient of his scientific scholarship. Ordeal by examination assumes a new terror when, in addition to having te answer highlytechnical questions, callow youths are requested to look back .on their lives from their deathbeds and ‘to state by what facts they will then determine whether they succeeded or failed.. Mr. Edison apparently believes’ in testing his candidates’ moral standards as well as their practical knowlédge. We confess, says an exchange, that another of his questions intriques us. "Tf, on a year’s expedition into the — desert, you could only save three persons out of 10, leaving the rest to perish, which would say save: a brilliant scientist, aged 60; two half-breed guides; the scientist’s wife, aged 39; her son, aged 6; the girl you are engaged to marry; your best friend, who is your own age; or yourself?" It is reported that only one of the forty-nine competitors said that he would have himself, an answer which ‘could hardly have pleased the inventor, who hopes to see the selected disciple blossom into Hdison II. Personally, we should have felt inclined to reply: "Can’t say. All depends what they. looket like, and how they behaved ing the expendition." Such posers can \ never be answered honestly in cold blood, and the examination hal] is the last place to choose for testing character. Perhaps Mr. Edison secretly hoped that one of his candidates would be brave enough to say so. As a shrewd observer of human nature has remarked: "Nobody knows how he will behave in any given situation until the situation arrives."