A Remarkable Speech

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 97, 29 August 1923, Page 2

A Remarkable Speech

'(THE CARPENTER AND SOME EDUCATED GENTLEMEN."

Mr Alexander Irvine, the author of "My Lady of the Chimney Corner," has a moving and significant article inv the "Teachers' World," in which he tells of a remarkable speech made by a man who had never made a speech before. It was an utterance which lingers in the memory, "About one hundred and fifty students who had i u st received their decrees met for a final dinner, before they separated to go into various parts of tho world, probably never to meet again. They had been so surfeited with dignified drivel during tho four years at college that they docidod to omit tho address at tho final function. Of two hundred professors there was one man whose criticism of college professor= was well known. He h<id never made an address In his life, and it was suggested, more as a joke than with any serious intent, to invite him to deliver the address. If they had imagined for a moment that he would accent the invitation he never would have been asked. He accepted, however, and the committee decided to let the class CgMn and bear it.

"I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY."

"The dinner took place in one of the world's greatest hotels. The banqueting hall wn a known far and wide for its artistic arrangements and luxurious furniture. The young men were dre sed in conventional full evening dress. Most of them were future captains of industry. Ihiring the course of the dinner there was a good deal of joking and some speculation about the processor's When the dinner was over, the chairman rapped for order and introduced the speaker. . " 'Pent lemon,' he began, 'I never made a .peech in my life, and I don't intend to beyiin now. T have something to say, however, and in saving it T will fellow Luthur's three fold rule: "Stand up straightly, sneak out holdly, and sit down

i quickly." -'' ■ " 'We are in one of the famous I banqueting hall- of the world. B«l----l shasszar's hall compared to this was : a on the third floor hack. ;No Riich art existed in those days

as we see around this room. No such viands graced his hoard. What was there was eleeant for that day,

hut we live in another a<ie, an ace

of art, artcrafttnanship, and luxury. { From the four comers of the earth ' came the thin<r s on this tab'e. From ■ the lowest forms of day labour to the i highest forms of art, we have around !us samples of at le»*t a hundred

; forms of human work. " 'Take this tablecloth, to begin i with. It ig of most equisite worki man>hip. It involves weaving—to ;gp no further 'back—bleaching,

smoothing, designing. It is a damask linen, beautiful and most pleasing to the eye. I want to ask you a question ■ Is there anyone here who

knows from personal experience anything about the labour involved? Have any of you ever contributed an v labour to the manufacturing of table linen? I am serious, gentlemen. If any of you have, I would like Kim to say so.' There was absolute silence. 'I understand, then,' he continued, 'that the making of such a thing is beyond your ken.

" 'Let me draw your attention to the samples of pottery here. Surely the men and women who produce such beautiful things are artists. What a joy it must be for a man to hold such a thing in his hand—complete—and say, 'I made it!' Many forms of "labour, are involved here, also—the digging of clay, the carting, fashioning, painting, burning, baking, and finishing. If there is a man here who has ever touched this form of labour, let him answer. No one!

" "There are samples of the mostexquisite, and, 1 know, costly, cut glass. That also involves much labour and great art. It is a unique industry in itself. I will not de+ail the process: we see the result, but the various forms of labour involved are practically unknown to us. 1 would be rather surprised to find a man among you who had ever touched thi% industry at any angle." "Tn this way he went over the silver, and dwelt rather lengthily on the subject of 'mining and the life of i the miner. Nothing escaped his notice. He drew attention to the carpet and rugs on the floor, to the curtain ß and drapery of the great windows, to the mural decorations, executed by the greatest living mural painter. There was a rich fresco around the room. He called attention to it. When he had gone over most of the things in the room ho turned again to the table. " 'There are cut flower s here,' he said. 'Most of you s]>ent some years in th study of botany, but I don't

think any of you would undertake to give us a complete classification of what we see and enjoy on the table.' There was a disposition to laugh, but ho wiped the smile from every face around the table by quietly saying, 'Perhaps you ate to be congratulated that you are at an ago when a sense of humour covers a multitude of sins, but, personally, I cannot enjoy that which gives me pain.

"'I am a representative University man, serio isly asking myself and yoai whether the system we call education educates?' The silence became oppressive. The men wero thinking.

DOES THE UNIVERSITY

EDUCATE?

tl 'Perhaps,' he continued, 'I should have put you more at ease by telling you at the beginning that I have never experienced the joy of fashioning articles with my own hands. Nor anything useful, for that matter. Here we are, then, a group of men on whom a University has set its stamp. We produce nothing we eat, we could not even lend a han c ] in the making of anything we see around us. and truth compel* me to venture the suggestion that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the chief motive of a college education is to escape actual participation in just such work as gives or ought to give joy to the worker. " 'A timekeeper performs a useful function, so does a cash register, but the function of education is not to turn out timekeepers or cash registers. It has been truly said that if ten Bachelors of Art were wrecked in mid-ocean they could not build a pontoon to save their lives 1 Thej would be equally helnle s in any critical emergency where practical knowlodege of the ordinary things around us wa 3 imperatively neces sary. A statement of the problem is not a solution, and we do not, gain much by tating that the system i s to blame and we are not. " 'You certainly are not to blame, You are the victims of whatever system we have. I cannot believe that a smattering of languages, of mathematics, and of history L o 'uca tion. T believe the system of camming these things to pass an examination is pernicious. So, havmg been asked, for the first timo in my life,. to make an address, I made it an opportunity

TO ENTER MY PROTEST. " 'Education is to prepare and equip for the duties and resp; nsibilitie, of life—not to turn out industrial and commercial bosses, gaiters, timekeepers, and cash registers. I would hardly be justified in taking up your time with these observations alone. So, in addition, I want to say this: Most of you are destined to be masters of men. You will) organise and , mobilise their labour, you will oversee ' it. " ft " 'When you see men around you actually creating beautiful things with their hands, I would like you to remember that it was my opinion that actual labor in arts and crafts and industries is an infinitely n bier contribution to the happinesf of mankind than clipping coupons and living on the swea;t of other . man's brows. ', " 'lt will not come in our day, but the world will ultimately come to understand that the training of the mind is as necessary as the training of the body. Why should it be considered an unthinkable thing that a blacksmith or a carpenter should need an 'education? Why should oolleee men consider it degrading to handle tools and make useful and beautiful things? ,

" 'Why should a University perpetuate such a revolt against Nature in which the man who does no useful work at all is considered a gentleman, and the creator of wealth and heautiful things should he considered low caste in Anglo-Saxon civilisation?

" '1 want to point out to you that the Inchest form of culture and refinement known to mankind was ultimatelv associated witli tools and labour. In ord°r to do that I muse present to you a picture, imaginative, bub in accord with the facts of history and experience.' "

THE MASTER BUILDER, "He pushed his chair back, and stood a few feet from the table. His face betrayed deep emouon. His voice became wunuenuily & uft and irresistibly appealing. The college men had been interested; they were now spellbound. He raised his hand, and wont throu,jJi the motions ot dra.ving aside a curlain.

" 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'may I introduce to you a young Galilean who is a master budder—Jesses 01 Nazareth I'

"It was a weird act. The silence became oppressive. As if addiessing an actual porsun of flesh and blood, he continued.

" 'Master, may I ask you, as 1 have asked the e young men, whether there 19 anything in this room that you could make with your hands a s other men make them?'

"There was a pause, a brief moment or two, then wfth the slow, trea ured stride of an Oriental he went to the end of the table, and took the tablecloth in his hand, and made bare the corner of a carved oak leg of the great table. In that position ho looked into the of the men and said, 'Tho Master says to us : I could make tho table—l am a caroenter-' "