POSERS FOR BOYS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21148, 4 October 1930, Page 26

POSERS FOR BOYS.

EDISON'S SCHOLARSHIPS. Forty-eight bright hoys—one from each State —struggled iu New York lately to give answers to questions which would qualify one of them as the brightest boy in the United States, and entitle him to a university course at the expense of Mr Thomas Edison. Edison’s questionnaire covered a wide field of scientific learning', character, and imagination. It ranged from the proper valuation of an acre of farming land in lowa, to the determination of the survival of the fittest on a desert island. The boys were required to say what should be done to curb Communist propaganda; to discuss the bouncing properties'of rubber balls, and to state what facts they had to consider on their death beds, to determine whether they had succeeded or failed in life. Some other puzzlers were: “What essentials would you emphasise in prescribing education to the entire world ? “ Would you encourage or dissuade a brother who wanted to become an artist or poet, and why? “What is a light year? “What is the function of leucocytes and how is bubonic plague transmitted? ” Mr Henry Ford, who was present at the examination, as a member of the committee of award, addressed ,the boys and told them that they could all make as much success of life as he had if they applied themselves to hard work, If someone could invent pure water which would satisfy everyone’s taste, he said, or invent a cheap bath tub. be would amass as big a fortune as Ford.