The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-03-08

WHY SHOULD MEN SEEK OFFICE?
1t mad passed into proverb that the
pursuit of the almighty dollar is the
chief occupation of the American citi-
zen Then, why is he so keen in the
pursuit of unremunerative public office?
All the wires that converge at Canton
are throbbing with appeals for place
Petitions for appointment to Consul
ships and Postmasterships and Collec-
torships are going round, and the pos
SCISSORS of actual or supposed influence
with the next Administration are every
day importuned for Endorsements.
Literally hundreds of thousands of cap
! able Americans are hoping and praying
and begging for offices that will not in
| four years yield them as large money
return as an energetic business or
professional man with fair opportunities
ought to earn in one. The proverb
about the almighty dollar must be at
| fault.
A foreign Consul gets one, two, or
| three thousand dollars annual salary,
and at the end of four years returns to
begin an anxious cropping for the thread
of lost opportunity. Why should a
bright man want to go to Copenhagen
when he can stay in New York? Why
is Mr.. Steiner content to live in Munich
for $1,000 year, leaving to others the
boundless possibilities of his own State
of Texas, which is bigger than the
whole German Empire? Why should a
man be willing to freeze in Winnipeg
| or bake in Barbados when he might
hustle in comfort in some live Ameri-
| can city and lay the foundation of
fortune? Is dusty Athens to be COM
| pared with Boston? What is there at
ST. John. n b., to lure man away
from this Republic? What is Malta to
st. Louis? Or Leipsic to Chicago? The
Americans who seek these barren post
turn their backs on opportunity.
| In the living expenses Of his family
and in entertainments Cabinet officer
at Washington spends twice or thrice
his beggarly salary of IS, 900. The pres
! idency excepted, there is not an office
| in the gift of the Government or of the
| people that aman of brains and activity
| can afford to accept merely as a way
| of making living. He can make a
better living and amass a competence
| besides in business or in practice. Office
holding does not pay" In this count
ry the private station does pay munific-
/ Gently those who know how to use it's
opportunities. That is the main reason
why brains have gone out of poll
| tics.
/ Still, the multitude of aspirants press
es amazingly upon Major Mckinley,
and will continue to press upon him for
months to come It is not the pecuniary
reward that lures them. 1t is the honor
| the pride ofplace and title, the supposed
charm of life in strange lands or some
other shallow illusion that impels them
to go forth from the office and the
counting house to shiver upon the door
steps of the dispenser of paltry parton
age. For men who have already arrived
| at opulence and freedom to choose,
! this is all very well if they like it. But
when those who have given hostages to
| fortune deliberately retire to cobwebbed
| corner of the earth never visited by her
| fortune deliberately retire to cobweb-
| lives and become the victims of a mis-
| guided choice.
| Great years are just ahead of us,
| years of high activities and money
making and progress. Some of those
who have camped upon the banks of
! Pactolus during all these lean seasons
and have grown weary of gazing upon
| its dusty bed may be incredulous and
| discouraged. But if the golden flood
comes down while they are in Finland
or Siam, they will have only themselves
! to blame and their regrets will be both
| bitter and vain. The opportunities of
| private life for the next half dozen years
| in the United States of America are go
| ing to be worth all the offices in the
| Federal Blue Book. Let-that reflection
| temper the ardor- of aspiration and the
! greif of disappointment