Show OPPORTUNITY OPP In an address to the students students of the University of ot Illinois President nt Ed Edmund Edmund mund J T James took occasion to dis die discuss discuss cuss the opportunities opportunIties for r r young men and incidentally to say that he thought John J Ingalls poem Opportunity contained more unmitigated nonsense than any equal number of lines In the English language To show the application application application cation of ot Professor James remarks the poem Is reproduced here Master of human destinies am I Fame love loe and fortune on my footsteps wait Cities ClUes and fields I walk I penetrate Deserts and seas remote and passing pasIng by Hovel and mart and palace soon or 01 late I knock unbidden once at every gate If It sleeping wake if feasting rise before belore I 1 turn away It is the hour of or fate And they who follow me reach every state Mortals desire and conquer every eer foe loe Save death but those who doubt or hesi hesitate hesitate tate tat Condemned to failure penury and woe Seek me in vain and uselessly implore I answer not and I return no more Not only Is the Illinois man right as asto asto Ii to the nonsense of the verse but he mIght have added that Ingalls did im immeasurable immeasurable measurable harm in writing it Most men have let opportunities elude them and to such the pessimism of the poem is as discouraging as a knockdown blow Instead of being true it is dan dangerously dangerously dangerously false because it has a grain of truth in It All of us have known men who quit and gave up the fight because they failed at the first great opportunity but more have rallied and won sometimes after successive de defeats defeats defeats feats Right here herein in Salt Lake there are men past the prime of life who have made fortunes within the th last five years who had won and lost and won and lost through all their years Ne Nevada Nevada Nevada vada is today filled tilled with men who had been wrecked elsewhere and recouped their fortunes there t ere Probably the west is a better field for this kind of victory than is the crowded east because it is not so crowded and because the atmosphere of the moun mountains mountains mountains and desert seems to have an in inspiration inspIration inspiration about it that is lacking in the great cities but in any event the fal fallacy fallacy fallacy lacy of Ingalls sentiment is demon demonstrated demonstrated demonstrated here almost daily Opportunity There never has been such a day of opportunity nor has there ever been a better field for it than right In this region Young or old rich or poor no no man of ability energy and in integrity integrity need lack a chance to win whether in business or professional life liCe |