There are two classes of people who may avail themselves of the educational process undertaken by the dissemination of information through the medium of the Overground Railroad: The man who is aided in his life work, and the man who must help himself. It is of the man who must help himself, of the “self-help” man, that there is more to be said of than the other. He represents the bone, sinew and brains of the nation.
When a man or woman succeeds in reaching a high position through his or her own efforts, or in attaining a point from which the work of a lifetime begins, and in the direction of success, the pride of attainment is justifiable.
There are many who have the strength of purpose and the will power to utilize the forces of mind and body within them, and develop themselves with the aid of that power.
Their examples are an illustration of a higher education that really educates.
The man or woman who sits with folded hands waiting for someone to help him, or for something to turn up or come his way, so that he can seize upon it without trouble or labor, is too far gone in uselessness in the present age to be worth trying to lift up.
We are all interdependent in this world of business, but must not imagine that because we must live with and do business with others, that we can depend solely upon those others. Every man must stand upon his own ability and exertions.
The men who do this succeed through self-help, self-reliance, self-knowledge, and self-sufficiency. The greatest men in history are those who worked themselves up from humble surroundings and against tremendous odds. It is always the brain that conceives the thought, and the strong arm that executes the mandates of the thought. Where the physical arm is not strong enough, the brain quickly conceives a method of supplying the difficulty.
It was the boast of the philosopher Archimedes that he could move the world if he could find a fulcrum for his lever. The modern man is so far advanced that he finds a fulcrum for his lever, and if he does not move the earth, he moves a large part of it.
If we take the pains to look about us, we shall find every avenue of human endeavor occupied by self-made men. These men originated in the most humble surroundings, but lifted themselves up through the sheer force of their own energy of character and vital force backed by persistence.
The history of the world has pages about the men who sprang up from humble sources and amid the greatest difficulties. They overcame them somehow, some say by the aid of Providence, but we know that it was through innate courage, brains, energy and persistence.