The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Puddler, by James J. Davis

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Title: The Iron Puddler

Author: James J. Davis

Commentator: Joseph G. Cannon

Posting Date: September 15, 2008 [EBook #1297]
Release Date: May, 1998

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE IRON PUDDLER

MY LIFE IN THE ROLLING MILLS AND WHAT CAME OF IT

By James J. Davis

Introduction by Joseph G. Cannon

The man whose life story is here presented between book covers is at the
time of writing only forty-eight years old. When I met him many years
ago he was a young man full of enthusiasm. I remember saying to him
then, "With your enthusiasm and the sparkle which you have in your eyes
I am sure you will make good."

Why should so young a man, one so recently elevated to official
prominence, write his memoirs? That question will occur to those who
do not know Jim Davis. His elevation to a Cabinet post marks not the
beginning of his career, but rather is the curtain-rise on the second
act of one of those dramatic lives with which America has so often
astounded the world. Bruised and bleeding in a southern, peon camp,
where he and other hungry men had been trapped by a brutal slave driver,
he drank the bitter cup of unrequited toil. And from this utter depth,
in less than thirty years, he rose to the office of secretary of labor.
There is drama enough for one life if his career should end to-day.
And while this man fought his way upward, he carried others with him,
founding by his efforts and their cooperation, the great school called
Mooseheart. More than a thousand students of both sexes, ranging from
one to eighteen years, are there receiving their preparation for life.
The system of education observed there is probably the best ever devised
to meet the needs of all humanity.

The brain of James J. Davis fathered this educational system. It is his
contribution to the world, and the world has accepted it. The good it
promised is already being realized, its fruits are being gathered. Its
blessings are falling on a thousand young Americans, and its influenc