(piano music)
- [Narrator] When I was
in college at Ames, Iowa,
I had charge of a football
squad and a running squad.
I was the professional
rubber in those days.
We called them rubbers.
We call them masseurs now
because it’s more dignified
and sounds better, but
we called them rubbers.
My work with oils,
I felt that we did not know enough about
the efficacy of oils
in the art of healing,
so I started out to
find as far as possible
the value of some of these oils.
So that in using these oils
and liniments and pastes
and powders and so forth,
there seemed to be something lacking.
When I came to Tuskegee,
I had a chance of studying it further.
- Dr. Carver, do you
consider yourself a chemist?
- We have to be very careful,
lest the ego comes in.
A person that can bake
a reasonably good cake
or a reasonably good pan
of biscuit can’t go out
and put up a shingle and say
that they are good cooks!
But they simply use their kettle or pan
as a means to carry out the end.
So I simply use the
chemical laboratory to find
certain things that I’m looking for.
A laboratory is simply a place
where we tear things to pieces.
Sometimes we can get them together again
if we want to put them together,
and sometimes we can’t.
But nevertheless, we can
pull things to pieces
and get the truth that
we are searching for.
We can at least find out,
out of what certain things are made,
which gives us information
to do other things with.
Sometimes it is wise
not to look for too much appreciation.
The main thing is to be sure
you’re right, and go ahead,
regardless of whether people appreciate it
or whether they don’t, because in time,
they will appreciate it.
So simply be sure that
you are on the right road.
- Dr. Carver, what is your
standard by which you judge
success or failure in life?
That’s a question that any
young person would ask you.
- Well, that is a question that
can’t very well be answered
by yes and no.
I should say the chief
purpose of scientific training
is to find truth.
And whenever you find
truth, you find the science.
You shall know truth and the
truth shall make you free.
There is nothing more
destructive to development
than ignorance and ignorance
is simply, I don’t know.
I should say this that the further anyone
gets away from themselves,
the greater will be their success in life.
You can’t get very far in life
if you don’t get away from self.
You know self is a little bit of a thing.
That little word I, terrible I disease,
one of the worst I diseases
that was ever known.
(piano music)
Then too, the question naturally comes in,
how can I be sure that
I’m on the right road.
I should simply say this,
that in all thy ways,
acknowledge him and he
shall direct thy paths.
Now you must learn to
look to him for direction
and then follow and you’ll never go wrong.
