Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 2, Number 27, DeMotte, Jasper County, 26 January 1933 — DAILY IMPROVEMENT [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DAILY IMPROVEMENT

By THOMAS ARKLE CLARK

Late Dean of Men, University of Illinois.

Mr. Richard Lovell Edgeworth, the father of Maria of fictional fame, ac-

cording to his biographer, was a man of tremendous energy. He was always taking up something new, always interested in some invention. He invented all sorts of things, and in a score of ways he did “almost pretty well.” He had a theory that no matter how old or advanced one be-

came one should improve himself daily. “You can improve,” Mr. Edgeworth used to tell his children, “every day of your life. With this power of improvement you may in time, be anything; without it you can be nothing.” It was a theory which he himself did not always carry out, but it is certainly one worthy of the serious consideration of everyone. Huntley went out of business not long ago, bankrupt. And yet I can remember when he had the finest store in town, the biggest trade in the line of merchandise which he carried. He was looked upon as one of the most prosperous business men we had. But he never improved. While other men, were remodeling their business buildings or adding new fronts with more attractive plate glass windows, Huntley made no change in the general appearance of his store. Soon it began to look like a back number--out of date, old-fashioned. He did not change his stock or his methods to meet new conditions. Some one came along and started a rival institution, and soon Huntley’s trade fell off, his enthusiasm waned, he began to lose money and ultimately he was closed out, and all because he didn’t give his mind to improving every day. Burroughs, twenty years ago, was looked upon as a coming man in his department of teaching. His lectures were illuminating, the book he was getting out was the expression of the latest thought in his field. His friends were sure that by the time he reached middle age he would be recognized as one of the great men in his field of education. He gives about the same lectures today he did twenty years ago, and the things that were true then are not true today. ©, 1933, Western Newspaper Union.