Self Help
In the vernacular of the day, Ford's reply knocked the questioner
cold.
Up to the time of that reply the lawyer had been enjoying
considerable fun at what he believed to be Ford's expense, by
adroitly displaying his (the lawyer's) sample case of general
knowledge and comparing it with what he inferred to be Ford's
ignorance as to many events and subjects.
But that answer spoiled the lawyer's fun. It also proved once more (to all who had the intelligence to accept the proof) that true education means mind development; not merely the gathering and classifying of knowledge. Ford could not, in all probability, have named the capitals of all the States of the United States, but he could have and in fact had gathered the "capital" with which to "turn many wheels" within every State in the Union.
Education-let us not forget this-consists of the power with which to
get everything one needs when he needs it, without violating the
rights of his fellow men. Ford comes well within that definition, and
for the reason, which the author has here tried to make plain, by
relating the foregoing incident connected with the simple Ford
philosophy.
There are many men of "learning" who could easily entangle Ford, theoretically, with a maze of questions none of which he, personally, could answer. But Ford could turn right around and wage a battle in industry, or finance that would exterminate those same men, with all of their knowledge and all of their wisdom. Ford could not go into his chemical laboratory and separate water into its component atoms of hydrogen and oxygen and then recombine these atoms in their former order, but he knows how to surround himself with chemists who can do this for him if he wants it done.
The man who can intelligently use the knowledge possessed by another is as much or more a man of education as the person who merely has the knowledge but does not know what to do with it. The president of a well-known college inherited a large tract of very poor land. This land had no timber of commercial value, no minerals or other valuable appurtenances, therefore it was nothing but a source of expense to him, for he had to pay taxes on it. The State built a highway through the land.
An "uneducated" man who was driving his automobile over this road observed that this poor land was on top of a mountain, which commanded a wonderful view for many miles in all directions. He (the ignorant one) also observed that the land was covered with a growth of small pines and other saplings. He bought fifty acres of the land for $10.00 an acre.