A Distinguished Educator has Found Contentment in the Simple Life.
“MY life has been very quiet,” said Dr. James Loudon, president of the
University of Toronto, which is the largest educational institution in
Canada. “When I was graduated from this University in the early sixties
I became associated with it as an instructor, and have never had any
other professional connection.
“My birthplace was the city of Toronto, and my parents, like those
of so many people in this province of Ontario, were Scotch. I might
remark, parenthetically, that I think the infant that opens its eyes
upon the world with Scotch blood in its veins has already made a pretty
fair start in life. The typical Scotchman is shrewd and patient, and
is the fortunate possessor of that sense of humor which does so much
to smooth the way, both for himself and for those about him, and is so
conducive to a sane philosophy. Patience, I have always thought, is a
particularly valuable asset for the man who desires steady progress in
his life.”
[Illustration: OUT OF DEBT AT LAST]
“The truth of this is exemplified in your own career,” I suggested.
“Perhaps so,” replied Dr. Loudon. “I well remember Toronto when it was
a comparative village, and I have seen it develop into the present
brisk and impressive city. I remember, too, our University when its
attendance was very small, and I have seen it steadily expand until now
it has over twenty-five hundred students, and its influence has become
widespread. I myself have been carried up with the general growth.
For many years I was professor of mathematics in the University, and
have made a special study of the science of physics. Finally, in 1892,
chiefly on the ground of long service, I was made the president.
“Our progress here has been preëminently healthy—a substantial process
of construction from the foundations up. If, from my observation of
this development, any wisdom for young men can be gleaned, I would say
to them, eliminate impatience and haste from your plans in building the
structure of your career. Build slowly, keeping a careful eye upon the
quality and placing of every beam and stone. It is by this method only
that you will be able to construct an edifice that will be permanently
satisfactory to yourself and impressive to the world.
“A conspicuous evil in the present day life of North America is
hurry. Young men, in haste to achieve success, force themselves.
The able ones rise with a rapidity which, I think is the reverse of
beneficial in the long run. A reaction, an aftermath, is apt to come.
Their mental and physical elasticity is apt to prematurely disappear,
with the result that they will too soon find themselves past the summit
of their careers and traveling the declivity on the other side. The
great cities on this continent, and particularly those of the United
States, have a voracious appetite for the vitality of youth. They
develop a man, yes, but they also exhaust him.
“The mistake of this lies principally in the industrial and social pace
of the present. Young men, influenced by the city life about them,
spend a good deal more money on their living and enjoyment than they
did in the days of my own youth, and in their keen desire to keep in
the hunt, so to speak, they seek the goal of wealth cross-lots instead
of by the more roundabout but much safer highway. The young women who
become their wives have great power in the matter of keeping them away
from the dangerous short-cuts. A wife should have an intimate knowledge
of the varying conditions in her husband’s business, in order that she
may properly adjust her expenditures to these conditions. This seems
obvious, but the wife’s failure in this respect has been the cause of
the undoing of many a man.
“The spirit of materialism and commercialism which is so marked has
been, perhaps, a necessary factor in the development of the resources
of this continent, but I believe that it is gradually losing its
position as the commanding influence in our New World civilization,
and that it will become a subordinate element in a broader and higher
attitude toward life.”
“This development will come sooner, I think, in the United States
than in Canada, for the reason that the former country has had the
start of us in the evolution. The rough work of subduing rebellious
nature, of clearing land, of breaking virgin soil for agriculture, of
building railroads, has been nearly completed across the border, while
on our side it is just beginning. We have a great Northwest, still in
large degree a wilderness, to cover with farms and homes and the other
appurtenances of civilization. We have yet large sections of our East
to dot with the towns and the industries which this territory will
bountifully support.
“It is only within a very few years that we have begun to take hold of
this work with the zeal and determination that brings success. With
this twentieth century there has been born in Canada a new spirit
of enterprise. Even here in the University its effects have been
strongly felt. It was not long ago that a large proportion of our
graduates became teachers, or entered some other professional sphere,
and in these fields most of them sought their opportunities in the
United States. At the present time the majority of our students have
turned toward commercial, mechanical or scientific pursuits, and they
are finding their openings within our own domain. The standard of
pecuniary compensation is advancing, not only in commerce but also in
the professions. For example, even as comparatively a short time as
a decade ago the largest fees or salaries for legal services never
rose above a very few thousand dollars. Now we often hear of Canadian
lawyers receiving many thousands in single fees or in yearly salaries
from railroad, banking and other corporations. The general tendency
is in this direction, and it is a direct result of our industrial
expansion. The interests of Canadian employers of brains and labor are
becoming larger. They want more men, and better trained men, and are
willing to pay them more than in former years.
“Since a university does not completely fulfil its functions unless it
keeps in touch with the life of the people and the currents of broad
activity, we of the University of Toronto are aiming to keep pace with
the new development in Canada. We are equipping young men for many
practical pursuits, and are even establishing close relationships with
numerous specific industries. Often of late we have had applications
from employers for young men capable of assuming responsibilities. We
keep track of the demand for youthful brains and university training,
and make a point of being always ready to supply it. A notable factor
in the practical work of the university is the Agricultural College,
which is located at Guelph, Ontario, and controls 550 acres of land,
upon which all phases of farming are carried on and taught to nearly
six hundred students. We feel that this college is doing work which
is very important. Much of the future wealth of Canada will be
derived from agriculture, and especially from wheat growing in the
Northwest, where hard wheat, the finest in the world, can be produced
in sufficient quantities to supply all the markets of the earth. To
adequately develop the possibilities of this territory we must have
scientific farmers, and this is the kind we are doing our best to train.
“But with all this effort along material lines, we are by no means
forgetting at the University of Toronto what we used to call the broad
humanities. The play of the spirit, the exercise of the imagination,
the stimulus of literature and art, a tolerant and cheerful philosophy
are, after all, the things which make life worth living.”