The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-29
NO SYMPATHY FOR DEBS
MRS. RUSSELL SAGE ANALYzEs La
BOR LEADERS CHARACTERS.
Believes Debs and the Walking Dele
gate Fraternity should GO 10 work
jay Gould as an Example.

Russell Sage cleaning over the stair rail
of the second floor)-I am too tired to talk
about Debs am too tired to think about
Debs.
Mrs. Russell Sage-My husband has been
very busy to-day; he is too tired to put his
mind on Debs
What does Debs want to do? We know
all about Debs and his followers. VIII they
work on farms if they get them? / doubt
1T. These men who lead away others who
work do very little themselves. I remember
General Eckert, of the Western Union,
used to say during the great strike that
the leaders who led their associates astray
did no work themselves. He had watched
their course from the beginning of a strike,
and he found they were idle. restless, mis-
chief-makers, and from the hall where they
made their speeches they went TO billiard
saloons and squandered their time and
money in amusing neutrality-suspicious. to
their own personal qualification, leaving
others to suffer and make all the sacrifices
of the strike.
"Debs wants the workingmen to go West,
l hear. What can they do; what will they
do when they get there? These men of
trades fresh from their benches know moth
ing Of farming, and doubt If any number
of them worth talking about would remain
on Western farm day after they got
enough money to return to the city.
1T is the nature of men to like compan-
ionship. They naturally gravitate from the
country to the city A boys ambition Is
to earn enough money to take him to the
city that he may become a successful mer-
chant, or win in some other business.
lovely place in the country, and / was
greatly interested in their welfare. l
thought they would be charmed with their
ACCOMPLISHMENTS than delighted with the
change from an overcrowded, worrying city
to the sweetness of the country. Within
few weeks L learned they were making ev-
ery' effort to get back to the place they
had left in town. They said they couldn't
stand the dullness and monotony OF the
Il tried once to get my coachman inter-
ested in a little place 1 had in Connecticut.
1t was pretty little home, with every
thing to charm the eye and delight the
soul. Would he stay there? No, not for
pay, He would not even cut the lawn,
When it comes to doing any real hard
work, such as farming, cutting grass, max
ing crops, blowing, reaping and harvesting,
these city men will not follow 1t a day If
the life and gayety of the city that men
crave and the country has attractions for
but few of them.
From the time these people Debs wants
to take out West leave their shops for the
plains they will be spending money without
means of getting more. And what will be
the far away lonely farms, with every
thing new and strange and not a thing
that they can do in the way Of agriculture,
because they have never been trained in
that calling?
Look at the condition of the thousands
of poor farmers already in the West-their
land mortgaged and debts to be met, with
no way of getting ready money. How are
these mechanics which Debs has in his
imagination going to succeed out there,
where others, now falling, are trying to
get back East?
The chief cause of all this discomfort is
a lack of proper instruction. Mr.. Sage finds
recreation and pleasure in his work he Is
always employed. He has no time for idle
ness and complaints. Industry is the sure
cure for discomfort and imaginary wrongs.
There is nothing so fatal to mans
career as abandoning a business of which
he knows the most for something he knows
least about
''If a man follows a calling most natural
to him and best suited to his capacities
and is industrious he will succeed. Mr..
never dreamed of making a fortune when
he began life. He had only one great am
bition-to found an institution for young
men and women where they could get free
a good education. To this end he worked.
He wasted no time. He was never idle,
and so almost without his knowing it pros
perity came, browning the success of his
efforts in founding his institution.
New York is great field for men to win
In almost any calling. Those Those who m nave We
the city, where they can have room and
opportunity for great achievements. 1t is
much better to remain here and tight It out
than to go West to fail and die dissatisfied.
The greatest of our men have como from
the country.
Jay Gould is one of them. He was a
much greater man than is generally sup
posed. He was a good man, but shy OF let
ting the world know what was nearest TO
his heart. He was a boy in the country,
made the most of what he had. He made
a success of things overlooked and abanc
doned by others. Even the mousetrap, of
which so much has been said, came from
his grandfather. and the boy made the
most of it. Mr. Gould always iamented
his lack of education. and now. in these
days the resolution of his life is bearing
fruit in the university endowed by his no
BILE daughter. She is carrying out her
fathers ideas and his wishes.
while young men like Debs were discon-
tented and neglecting the opportunities at
hand, Jay Gould worked and saved and
studied. No man was more industrious,
and yet he did it all with one lung. Years
ago an attack of pneumonia left him with
only one organ of respiration. Had he been
blessed with a pair of good, sound lungs
he would have been alive to-day and
achieved the greatness which was in his
mind. 1t was that one lung that drove him
to the city. His ultimate ambition was to
establish a great institution for the educa-
ton of the young.
These men who go on strikes and COM
plain of what they already possess and
spend their nights in discouraging others
who are content have little sympathy for.
Let DeDS go TO work ana nelp men make
the most of what is nearest at hand, and
it will be better all around. There are more
advantages in the East than where there
are fewer opportunities and more limited
resources. Industry, thoughtfulness and
perseverance will win anywhere Debs's
scheme Of planting big colonies of men I'M
prepared for a strange and lonely life in
the West. far from friends and the scenes
of their best years, seems impracticable
and wild. 1 do not believe it will succeed
on the lines he has laid down in the letter
to the public L would say to Debs, Go to
work and win success yourself before you
attempt to lead others into unknown enter
prises.