A Question to Young Men

A Question to Young Men

Are You Attending College or High School this Winter?

By Dr. George H. Brimhall, President of the Brigham Young University

"A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge." — Joseph Smith.

"A free people must be an intelligent people."- — Henry Clay.

"A right conception of patriotism should induce all students who can-

not render some immediate service of great value to remain in college,

concentrate their energies on their college work, and thus be all the more

ready and fit when their services may be needed either for war or for the

important work of reconstruction and development in our own and other

countries, when the war shall have ended." — Dr. P. P. Claxton, U. S. Com-

missioner of Education.

The number of students in colleges, universities, and technical schools

should increase rather than diminish. Many of the older and upper class

men will volunteer for some branch of the military service, but all young

men below the age of liability to selective draft and those not recommended

for special service should be urged to remain and take full advantage of the

opportunities offered by the colleges, universities and technical schools,

to the end that they may be able to render the most effective service in

the later years of the war and the times of need that will follow. Prac-

tically all women students should remain, and all boys and girls graduating

from high schools should be urged to enter college, technical school, or

normal school.

"When the war is over, whether within a few months or after many

years, there will be such demands upon this country for men and women

of scientific knowledge, technical skill, and general culture as have never

before come to any country. The world must be rebuilt. This country

must play a far more important part than it has in the past in agriculture,

manufacturing and commerce, and also in the things of cultural life — art,

literature, music, scientific discovery."- — Dr. P. P. Claxton, U. S. Commis-

sioner of Education.

"I will make a man more precious than fine gold." — Isa. 13:12.

What does this prophecy mean? Is its fulfilment at hand?

Does it mean that there will be a woeful scarcity of men as in-

dividuals, or does it mean that manhood, physical, intellectual,

moral, and spiritual, combined in the individual, will be re-

garded as above price and be sought for before all other things?

Possibly it means both. How long does it take divinity,

nature, and society working together to produce a mortal man?

How long does it take to destroy one? How much does it cost

to make a teacher, a statesman, an engineer, a mining expert, a

skilled surgeon, an efficient farmer, or mechanic? How long

A QUESTION TO YOUNG MEN 249

does it take to produce a wizard of science, a magician of art,

or a giant of finance?

The sorrow of the silence that will follow the calling of a

name at the front will be but once, but the painfulness of the

presence of the vacant chair at home will be of long duration.

The weakening of the ranks in the army by the fall of a hero

may be remedied by the rush of a new recruit to fill the place;

but the waiting desk, the forum, the farm, the work bench, each

will be calling for men, and there will be no reserve on which to

call.

Bravely have our young men gone to the front, placing

their lives on the altar of freedom; courageously have those at

home toiled as never before for one great purpose — the preser-

vation of humanity from the mad rush of despotic destruction.

It is the season when the soil shall slumber, the rivers be

locked in ice, but the blood of the patriot will surge at high tide.

Young men of Utah, there are high places waiting for that man

coming towards each of you, a little older than you. His name

is your name. What he shall be and do will depend upon what

you do this winter. If you use your brain for the next few

months as you have used your brawn for the last few months, he,

the man coming towards you, will greet you with a smile of sat-

isfaction, a look of exultation, and a grip of gratitude. He will

say to you:

I am so glad you did it. Had you let that winter slide by, or used it

for temporary profit, or in any way than just as you did, I should have come

to you too small for the place to be filled. You were in the field of op-

portunity, I was just approaching it. You picked the apples of opportunity

that I might eat them. You planted that I might harvest. You plodded that

I might make speed. You studied that I might know. You practiced that I

might be skillful. You were honest that I might be trusted. Here we are.

You are I, and I am you.

Read, young man, read again the quotations at the head of

this article. Study the announcement of the complete courses,

high school and college. Elect your work; then, up and at it for

the sake of the man you must meet. Remember, what he shall

be, what he shall do, and what he shall have, depends upon you

now, now, now!

Provo, Utah