The Social Side Of Edison -12

The Social Side Of Edison -12

 It might be expected that Edison would have extreme and even radical ideas on the

subject of education--and he has, as well as a perfect readiness to express them, because

he considers that time is wasted on things that are not essential: "What we need," he has

said, "are men capable of doing work. I wouldn't give a penny for the ordinary college

grad- uate, except those from the institutes of technology. Those coming up from the

ranks are a darned sight better than the others. They aren't filled up with Latin,

philosophy, and the rest of that ninny stuff." A further remark of his is: "What the country

needs now is the practical skilled engineer, who is capable of doing everything. In three

or four centuries, when the country is settled, and commercialism is diminished, there

will be time for the literary men. At present we want engineers, industrial men, good

business-like managers, and railroad men." It is hardly to be marvelled at that such views

should elicit warm protest, summed up in the comment: "Mr. Edison and many like him

see in reverse the course of human progress. Invention does not smooth the way for the

practical men and make them possible. There is always too much danger of neglecting

thoughts for things, ideas for machinery. No theory of education that aggravates this

danger is consistent with national well-being."

Edison is slow to discuss the great mysteries of life, but is of reverential attitude of mind,

and ever tolerant of others' beliefs. He is not a religious man in the sense of turning to

forms and creeds, but, as might be expected, is inclined as an inventor and creator to

argue from the basis of "design" and thence to infer a designer. "After years of watching

the processes of nature," he says, "I can no more doubt the existence of an Intelligence

that is running things than I do of the existence of myself. Take, for example, the

substance water that forms the crystals known as ice. Now, there are hundreds of

combinations that form crystals, and every one of them, save ice, sinks in water. Ice, I

say, doesn't, and it is rather lucky for us mortals, for if it had done so, we would all be

dead. Why? Simply because if ice sank to the bottoms of rivers, lakes, and oceans as fast

as it froze, those places would be frozen up and there would be no water left. That is only

one example out of thousands that to me prove beyond the possibility of a doubt that

some vast Intelligence is governing this and other planets."

A few words as to the domestic and personal side of Edison's life, to which many

incidental references have already been made in these pages. He was married in 1873 to

Miss Mary Stillwell, who died in 1884, leaving three children--Thomas Alva, William

Leslie, and Marion Estelle.

Mr. Edison was married again in 1886 to Miss Mina Miller, daughter of Mr. Lewis

Miller, a distinguished pioneer inventor and manufacturer in the field of agricultural

machinery, and equally entitled to fame as the father of the "Chautauqua idea," and the

founder with Bishop Vincent of the original Chautauqua, which now has so many

replicas all over the country, and which started in motion one of the great modern

educational and moral forces in America. By this marriage there are three children--

Charles, Madeline, and Theodore.