The Chemawa American
Printed at Chemawa,
Oregon, and Devoted to the Interests of Indian Education
J 3
Wednesday, October
Vol. XXVII
DO NOT QUIT
Boys and girls, when things go wrong with you,
when you lose out in what you have undertaken, what
is your attitude? Do you give up, or push on, more
determined than ever to win?
We do not care much about what young people do
when everything goes their way, when life is smooth;
but we do want to know what they do next after they
have had a serious setback in any undertaking.
Defeat and failure mean very little to a resolute boy
or girl. You cannot conquer them; you may knock
them down, but they will rebound like a rubber ball; the
greater the fall the greater the rebound.
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, for every
body fails at times, but in rising every time we fall.
It is not the fall, but failure to get up that is defeat.
That is the secret of the success of every brave and
noble person that ever lived. Multitudes of people can
stand almost anything but reverses, obstacles, dif
ficulties.
They get along splendidly when everything runs
smoothly, when things are easy, but when hard things
arise, temptations assail them, they are completely
upset. They do not know how to meet the emer
gencies, or any crisis in their daily living, and they
become discouraged and quit. We have seen this
many times right here at Chemawa—the quitter, the
fault-finder, the disturber. It is the weak, backbone
less, persons every where who are the first to fall when
an emergency arrives. Real winners, students, never
show the white feather.
The finest type of manhood and womanhood is never
overwhelmed or entirely dismayed no matter what
comes. If the ¡dans or ambitions of a student of this
type are thwarted, his spirit remains undaunted, his
courage, his powers of resistance, and his self-confi
dence are undiminished and he starts out again. Fail
ure is the final and acid test of persistence. It either
crushes the individual or so solidifies him that nothing
can stand against his indomitable will.
Obstacles nerve and strengthen the strong, but para
lyze the weak. The winning student knows that every
honest, earnest endeavor, whether it wins out directly
or not, is a mental and moral muscle developer, a
power builder, a force producer which will help to
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No. 5
win in later struggles. It is not defeat that bothers us
so much as it is the failure to get up and go at it
again with redoubled efforts; that spells “yellow."
There should not be a single student with aught but
sincere loyalty for this great Indian school, and it
should be shown not only in words but in action in
every school activity.
Some of our greatest living men and women have
won their reputations by overcoming defeats which
have followed them all their lives. Thes - defeats
would have proved fatal to men or women *
of
less stern stuff, but the strong person turns everything
into victory. If we are made of winning material all
of our defeats will ultimately work to our good; if not
directly, then indirectly. The persistent effort to win
strengthens the entire character. The particular things
which we do, the special efforts we make, often seem
to fail; but it is the persistent, perpetual struggle, the
everlasting trying, the constant pushing that counts
and that develops men and women. All true success
is won by struggling, and so it may be said that every
thing comes to those who struggle. If we manfully
and womanly struggle, stick and push on, things will
finally come our way and we will be successful.
It is said that defeat is nothing but the first steps
toward something higher. It is really lamentable to
see so many young men and women of superior qual
ities in cheap, lowly positions, because they have not
the education or training necessary for filling better or
higher paid .positions. It is really tragic when we
remember that the remedy lies in their own hands;
that they play havoc with their lives when a little
effort and stick on their part would have worked a rev
olution in their careers.
No person is beaten until he releases his grip on
any life aim. No one is beaten so long as he works
toward his goal, no matter whether he reaches it or
not. So, students, let us conclude by saying that if
any of you here are deluding yourselves with the belief
that somehow, some way, something will turn up to
improve your condition without any effort on your part
you are making a tremendous mistake and losing pre
cious time. Nothing will come to you except through
your own labor, your own efforts, and it will depend
on how you utilize your time right now.
The better you work the better the results, the more
you will receive, for the student who can grit his teeth
and go it alone whether he receives encourgement or
not, regardless of the approval of his classmates, who
pushes ahead not back, is the one who gets there, it is
he whom the world is after. It is the one with courage
and determination who wins the prizes. Such young
men and women have no fear of many rivals.