THE SPHINX, JUNE, 1925
6'
A ONE-MAN CAMPAIGN Brother Rev. Ernest Dyett conducted the Educational Campaign in Joliet all by himself. Certainly the entire fraternity commends him for his splendid work. The news item below appeared in the only daily in his city, Joliet, 111.; Aids Campaign The Rev. Ernest Dyett has concluded two weeks' work in behalf of the "Go-to-High-School, Go-toGpllege" campaign, conducted under the auspices of the Alpha Phi Alpha national fraternity, which has sixty chapters in the leading colleges and universities, extending from Harvard to Southern California. The campaign received the endorsement of President Harding and President Coolidge, and last year touched 3,000,000 children and young people. The proposition will be broadcast from station W M A Q Sunday. The Rev. Ernest Dyett has introduced the campaign before approximately 6,000 people in Joliet. H e spoke in behalf of it before the Elks, and the Knights of Pythias, other organization and churches.
ARE W E FIT? By
BROTHER J A M E S
W.
MCGREGOR.
Among the great questions which present themselves to serious-minded men and women from day to day the above, which forms the caption of this article, is, perhaps, the most insistent. It is insistent because it is vital in the scheme of successful lining. If we believe that life is a struggle then preparation, which is incidental to fitness, is a fundamental aid to victory. No great battle in human history has been won without it. It was the pivot of Napoleon's success. Upon it Alexander and Caesar piled fame upon fame. The calamity of the athlete lies in a lack of preparation and training. H e is not fit, if he had not prepared himself, and can expect, therefore, little more than failure, if he does not completely fail. When prepared, however—when trained—he takes his place on the mark with self-assurance. At the crack of the pistol he leaps to the track in the confidence of his fitness and maintains one hundred chances of success against the one chance of his rival who had never trained himself. Arc we fit? Fit for what? Fit for life; fit to be selected. The work of the world is divided; each man has his share which, if he shirks, he denies to himself a responsibility which is the test of his manhood. A just execution of his work, then, is a recognition of his responsibility and power. But can he execute that work successfully and maintain that sense of responsibility without being fit? The practical experiences of human life have never- answered that he can. A man cannot teach music without that preparation which equips him for teaching. He would not be sufficiently responsible in that field. Nor would we concede to any man the power of an astronomer if he were not trained in the science of astronomy. The responsible exponent of botany is one who had trained himself in the science of botany just as the responsible builder is one who had trained himself in a knowledge of architecture. Unquestionably, therefore, success, responsibility, and power in human life are the results of adequate preparation and fitness. The lawyer, business-man or statesman becomes a man of power because of added responsibilities invited by his fitness for his particular task. H e is fit because he had trained himself. This vital principle in human society has stimulated the growth of innumerable avenues through which men and women may fit themselves for various lines of endeavor. These avenues are. broadly speak-
ing, our schools and colleges which afford unlimited opportunities for training those who will avail themselves of the advantages offered. They mean much to the life of a people. They are the corner-stone—• the strength and vigor—of all great governments. They are the essential glories of successful democracies. Shaping thought, they shape lives and fashion great personalities. Yet we have listened with pain, at times, to men who, by accident, have attained economic success, denouncing as useless those who have acquired academic training and citing, in support of their opinion, one or two isolated cases of collegiate failures. The folly of such observations is easily demonstrated by the following facts: Of those who have never had a grammar school training in life but six out of a million ever attain distinction. Among those who have completed the eighth grade 160 in a million rise above the average. In the group of those who have completed their high school course 640 stand out in the same million; while within the circle of a million who have made their way through a college or university 5,780 achieve distinction. These figures argue a tremedous value in training men and women in college along with the fact that year after year vast crowds find their way there, bent upon multiplying their chances of being fit. Again, the value of our schools and colleges is demonstrated in their increased financial outlay from one year to another. W hat also is the significance of their continued poTfenfial and numerical growth? As in our religious life we find those who do not take their religion seriously, so in our educational life there are those who do; not take their education seriously. But these are not the test of the work of education any more than the careless religionist is the test of the value of religion. We do not condemn chickens as a class of birds because we stumble on certain chickens which do not serve our table purposes well. Nor do we frown on roses as a species of flowers because we find some roses which are blighted. We test their worth by the majority of the best among them. In like manner should we prove the value of those of college training. This is our answer to the untrained judge who sits off yonder in the scorner's seat 1 We owe a duty to ourselves and to human life to efficiently execute our tasks. Fitness predicates efficiency. Upon it rests our undoubted realization of responsibility and power. We do not take a chance on living in the process of making ourselves fit, but rather do we increase our chances for living. W e increase our earning power because we increase our efficiency. W e become efficient in moral, physical and economic conservation. We execute the possible maximum of work in the possible minimum of time. We are skillful in adjusting our own lives to those of our relationships to avoid misunderstanding and friction. The wisdom of practical experience is tempered by the wisdom of theoretical training, in which combination we approximate that intelligence in our lives which directs us really how to live. Are we physically fit? Every element of life's endeavor assumes physical fitness. It is folly to advocate intellectual preparation which ignores it. "A sound mind in a sound body" is irrefutable in the practical adventures of human life. Does college, then, make men physically fit? The answer resides in the fact that there is not a college.or university in the country which has not, in its. curriculum," its course in physical education; nor is there orieyWvvhich would deliberately fail to teach its proteges an elementary respect for the laws of health. Intercollegiate athletics, which are tremendous factors in the physical scale of academic life, furnish another answer to the question. But outtide of college an acquired intelligence should pilot our methods in an effort to maintain the best possible bodily care. That education which is only strong enough to grasp at and cultivate alf that is beautiful and great in the intel-