and then apply
yourself to that need, and this leads to invention on the part of the
people you would not dream of before. The great inventors are simply
great men; the greater the man the more simple the man; and the more
simple a machine, the more valuable it is. Did you ever know a really
great man? His ways are so simple, so common, so plain, that you think
any one could do what he is doing. So it is with the great men the world
over. If you know a really great man, a neighbor of yours, you can go
right up to him and say, "How are you, Jim, good morning, Sam." Of
course you can, for they are always so simple.

When I wrote the life of General Garfield, one of his neighbors took me
to his back door, and shouted, "Jim, Jim, Jim!" and very soon "Jim" came
to the door and General Garfield let me in--one of the grandest men of
our century. The great men of the world are ever so. I was down in
Virginia and went up to an educational institution and was directed to a
man who was setting out a tree. I approached him and said, "Do you think
it would be possible for me to see General Robert E. Lee, the President
of the University?" He said, "Sir, I am General Lee." Of course, when
you meet such a man, so noble a man as that, you will find him a simple,
plain man. Greatness is always just so modest and great inventions are
simple.

I asked a class in school once who were the great inventors, and a
little girl popped up and said, "Columbus." Well, now, she was not so
far wrong. Columbus bought a farm and he carried on that farm just as I
carried on my father's farm. He took a hoe and went out and sat down on
a rock. But Columbus, as he sat upon that shore and looked out upon the
ocean, noticed that the ships, as they sailed away, sank deeper into the
sea the farther they went. And since that time some other "Spanish
ships" have sunk into the sea. But as Columbus noticed that the tops of
the masts dropped down out of sight, he said: "That is the way it is
with this hoe handle; if you go around this hoe handle, the farther off
you go the farther down you go. I can sail around to the East Indies."
How plain it all was. How simple the mind--majestic like the simplicity
of a mountain in its greatness. Who are the great inventors? They are
ever the simple, plain, everyday people who see the need and set about
to supply it.

I was once lecturing in North Carolina, and the cashier of the bank sat
directly behind a lady who wore a ve