Energy

Energy* BY JOSEPH QUINNEY, JR. To the Man Who Has Quit Trying Ten fingers, one backbone, a whole mind and a doubt-proof heart are all that any man ever needed to do anything. Why are you holding back? Why do you throw up the sponge? Why do you whine there's no hope to win? It's always the right moment to make good. Age is no hindrance if your ability hasn't grown gray with your hair. If at any time in your life you had reason to think you could achieve something bigger, it's now. No generation ever enjoyed more privilege or suffered fewer restrictions. Yesterdays never are as wonderful as tomorrows. The world keeps on. It progresses, it doesn't backslide. Every year the number of trades increases — professions multiply — there are new ways, better ways of doing old things — shorter paths to old goals — higher wages for lighter labors — enthusiasm constantly finds wider range- — ideas swing in a broader scope, and imagination's wings beat with a bolder stroke. What you regret can't compare with what you can get. Make a dare and seize your share. You may have whatever your performances deserve. The only patent on possession is merit. If you're the better man, your inferiors must give way and give up to you. Forget what you were — forget what you had, and come forward. Hope lies beyond the next hill — not behind the last. Fears are far worse handicaps than years. If you are down, it's because you are down-hearted. If you are standing still, it's because you would rather hang back than hang fast. You're afraid. You've lost your nerve. You simply won't try. Your mind runs to the past. You've made a rosary of your disappointments and sit counting your lost opportunities. You can't loll yourself along. You can't reclaim one dead hour. Your downfall wasn't advertised nearly so much as you seem to think. A hundred million of us who never heard of you and never saw you are prepared to accept your achievements' valuation and pay market price if you can deliver. You are an ass if you think that we all recollect your name and your shame and your blame. You're a fool if you think that all humanity has entered into a vast conspiracy of memory against you. If truth be told, at no time in your obscure existence have more than a hundred or so persons ever heard of you — nonentities aren't prominent. There are so many people and so few amount to anything— the struggle for existence is so hard, the fight for daily bread so tense, and so many submit to the struggle, that we don't bother to recall failures. It's as much as a lusty brain can do to keep track of all the noted folks. *An address first given to the students of the State Agricultural College, Logan, Utah, April 19, 1912.

672 IMPROVEMENT ERA Come now — piece together the remnants of your self-respect, search for a spark in the ashes of your old ambitions and push out into the rising tide— it's a mighty bad wreck that can't supply enough timber for a raft. Rip the crepe off your face and face a fresh career. Even if you repeat your defeat, you can't sink farther than the bottom and you're there now. — Selected. A well directed effort is a conservation of power which produces wealth and happiness. This applies to every avocation in life, for to direct well an effort, one must have a systematic mind which must be active, energetic and strong, because in the directing of energy, along any given line, there must be a conservation characterized by the best thought. One must think well in order to bring into his life a happiness he expects to get by the proper use of energy. The opportunities which come to us are perhaps the result of well directed energy. Opportunity amounts to nothing unless we are prepared to take hold of it and direct our energies for its development. We are perhaps doing more in the way of developing opportunities that have been left by our predecessors than in creating our own. The thing someone else has started to do is in many instances the very thing we are doing, only it is being done in a more intensified way. The opportunity is beingdeveloped. The thought we leave undeveloped others will pick up, and make opportunity out of it just the same as we are making opportunity out of the thoughts others have left for us. If we are not qualified to take advantage of, and develop these thoughts, opportunity will slip away from us and pass into the hands of others who are able, and who will care for it, so the direction of energy will either qualify, or disqualify for our future success. The doing of a thing, and doing it properly, is the foundation upon which good, sound government is established, whether it be social, moral or religious government. The man who can do things, and get good results, is really the man who is shaping the lives and destinies of others. His power is being directed for the ultimate good of all. No man or woman ever arrived at a point in life where their influence amounted to anything without going out to meet and help solve the problems of the day, and make the very best use of every moment of time at their command. There are perhaps more opportunities now than before in the world's history and it requires the proper use and the direction of energy to develope these opportunities which are ever coming to us. Misdirected energy spells failure; consequently it needs conservation more than any other thing in life. To conserve energy and direct it properly stands for progress and development. The natural tendency of the child is to do something, and it requires close attention to direct and guide it aright. There is a saving — "It is but a trite truism to sav that

ENERGY 673 no one ever receives an education alone, and the only way we can keep an education is to give it away, and the more people we will it to, the more education we have left." So, in the directing of the energy we observe in the child, we are contributing to it an education, and at the same time making an education for ourselves. The more we tell a thing the better we understand it, and the more we understand it, the more we want to tell it, and by reason of this fact those about us grow stronger because of our own conviction and the efforts we have put into it for its development and use. The thing that is beautiful always suggests well directed energy. We look about us and observe well cultivated gardens, fields and flowers ; our very souls are inflamed with gratitude and gladness because of the influence divine that they suggest; the observance of these well-cultivated gardens, fields and flowers biiggest well-directed effort. There is a reverence and respect always for the men and women who have thus cultivated and cared for them, and we conclude in our minds that there has been more than a physical effort directed, there has been a high, lofty thought. The moral uplift that this civic improvement has brought about is wonderful, it has given us a higher thought, it has expanded our souls, and brought into our lives an appreciation for the labors of others, it has added to our belief and faith in God ; it has added to our power of appreciation, and brought us to a condition in life where we are better able to direct our own powers, and develop our own souls along higher ideals to bring into the world the most love and good. On the other hand, when we see about us fields and premises that have been, and are neglected, instead of bringing a better thought and feeling into our lives, we are losing self respect, and also confidence in our fellow man, reverence is lost, and the influence of these people who are owners of these places is at a very low ebb. In some of the beautiful parks in our country there are beautifully kept lawns, and in the heart of these lawns are planted different designs, among some of these is the emblem of our country, the American flag, the stripes of red and white, and the white stars are growing, blending and harmonizing together most beautifully. Each plant is so separate and distinct that the relationship of the whole is one splendid inspiration, and produces an appreciation for the efforts of the persons who have thus used their power for the moral uplift of their fellow men. It is an inspiration which enables one to appreciate more fully the fact that he owes something to himself, and to the country he represents. There is a suggestion that carries with it a power and a force. It is the kind of energy that adds to the happiness of the race, it not only exemplifies the true character of the persons whose efforts have made it possible to produce such happiness, but has given an edu-

674 IMPROVEMENT ERA cation to perhaps thousands who visit these places from time to time. It also conveys a diversified direction of energy, and also establishes the fact that we are not to get into a rut, because it is said that "the only difference between a grave and a rut is in the depth and the width." Allow me here to refer to some of those who have contributed their efforts for the upbuilding of our country both morally and physically. Do you know Peter Cooper? God bless the memory of such men. Peter Cooper was the fifth child on the family tree ; his mother thought he should have been a girl, but Providence intervened, and he turned out to be a boy . After he had arrived at an age of accountability, his mother saw her mistake, and made the memorable remark : "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock we will build the Cooper home." It proved to be a confirmation of what she had said, for as the years advanced this boy met opportunities ; the problems that came to him were cheerfully solved, and perhaps next to Benjamin Franklin he has done as much good, and brought as much peace and blessing to the souls of men as any other American. He was an inspiration, a tower of strength. He spent some of his time working for $1.50 a day. His employer observed in him the amount of service he contributed to his business, and allowed him $50. extra at the end of his first year's service ; $75. at the end of his second year. He was developing rapidly in strength, and he soon became a partner in the business. The habit he acquired of saving more than he spent stands out as a great moral lesson to the youth of this land. Nothing satisfied this young man but the very best, and after serving his apprenticeship as a wheel-wright, he gave to the world the very best coaches and vehicles it had ever had up to this time. The patent he had secured from the government on a device for holding spokes intact in the wheels was disposed of for $500. He needed the money more than the patent. At this time there was a man who had become very much dissatisfied with the glue factory he was trying to operate, Peter Cooper saw his opportunity, seized it, and the glue factory together with a clear title became his property. The development of this industry grew and strengthened, because the development of the young man grew and became strong as he managed this business. One of the great characteristics of this man was never to let go of one good thing until he was absolutely sure that the next thing he took hold of offered more opportunities, and brought better returns. He rolled the first steel rail that America had had up to this time. He was a successful partner to Cyrus Field who has the credit of laying the first cable across the Atlantic. It is true Mr. Field had the money, but Peter Cooper had the brain, and it developed soon after the cable was laid that he became the President and General Manager of the Atlantic Cable Company. This com-

ENERGY 675 pany through the efforts of Peter Cooper brought the civilizations of the world into communication instantaneous and reliable. His conception of a railroad coming in competition with water traffic led him to make the statement that he would give the world a locomotive that would travel at least thirteen miles per hour, and pull a half dozen coaches or cars, he made an ordinary tank in which to generate steam, took two musket barrels, attached them to the tank, and then into the cylinders, and conveyed the steam through these gun barrels into the cylinders, and thus produced the power which turned the wheels of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. This was the first competition to water traffic in this land of America. Peter Cooper's energy would not permit him to be satisfied with the accomplishment of one thing. He saw the great need of a free public school system and when he advocated the idea of establishing such a system he met with ridicule and much opposition. He took his entire fortune and built what is known as the Cooper Union. This school has an enrollment of three thousand five hundred students. There are only three other schools in America that are larger than this school. I merely mention Peter Cooper as an example of well directed force and energy. We can all be Peter Coopers in principle, and while we cannot expect to accomplish as much as he did, we can contribute the very best service we have in helping and developing those about us. Through the quotations I gave to you in the beginning of my address, I want to emphasize and maintain that the yesterdays are never as wonderful as the tomorrows, because, yesterday is neither more nor less than a dream to us ; it has gone and passed from us with all its opportunities and privileges, and leaves us with its experiences ; and a vision of hope that is always before us of tomorrow, and because of this hope that is within our souls the utilization of energy should bring about the determination to bring into the world an influence that will be felt and understood for the moral uplift of our fellow men. Energy, whether it be physical or mental will make us what we want to be, shape the destinies of others, and will ultimately bring into the world a fraternal brotherhood of onward progress. There is a power in all we do and say, and in conclusion I desire to quote a poem which has in it literary merit and conveys this principle of energy more forcibly than anything I know of, it is called "Columbus :" Behind him lay the gray Azores, Behind, the gates of Hercules; Before him not the ghost of shores, Before him only shoreless seas. The good mate said: "Now must we pray, For lo! the very stars are gone, Brave Admiral, speak; what shall I say?" "Why say, sail on, sail on, and on."