The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-06-04
EQUAL CHANCE FOR ALL.
The Poor Man Has Only to Grasp His
Opportunity. Says Ingalls,.

says AAE5
II. J. ingalls,. in New York Journal.1
One summer evening, in pensive
thought, I wandered fifty odd years ago, |
with a sehoolmate under the Button
woods, in Haverhill. on the shore OF the
moonlit Merrimac. We talked long, as
thoughtful schoolboys will, of the mys-
teries of the universe and the enigmas of
destiny
In our defective forecast the future APP
peared dark troubled and uncertain.
Times golden age was behind. The battle
for fame and fortune was more desperate.
We did not know, we could not know, no
one knew. that we were standing at the
portal or the threshold of the most mar
velous age of the world history, an age
of such incredible achievements in sci
ence. war wealth. luxury and national
power. growth and glory. that by com
parison the most exaggerated fables Of
fiction the Lamp of Aladdin. the Purse of
Fortunatus. the Philosophers Stone, seem
like the trivial commonplaces of the nur-
sery. and the widest hyperbole becomes
tame and prOSalc.
Looking backward across the years
since that moonlight stroll on the banks
Of the enchanted river do not see that
have been denied any right. privilege or
opportunity enjoyed by those who have
drawn the great prizes in the lottery of
life-we all had the same chance
If laws were unjust, ali alike were their
victims If statutes were benehcent. none
were debarred their advantage. Those
! who climbed the highest began lowest
! None was favored by legislation or IN
Lincoln and Grant neither suspected of
| greatness, We're waiting in homely lndt-
/ gence the summons that. ten years later,
/ was to call them up to immortal fame
/ Edison, the mightiest magician of the
/ force of nature a tramping teleg-
rapher. Carnegie was messenger boy in
! Pittsburg Huntington was selling picks.
pals and horseshoes in Sacramento. Jay
I Gould a book agent in DelaNa are
/ county The RockefeIIers and the mob
/ of plutocrats that excite the envy and
/ arouse the indignation of those who nave
| failed, all began in the lowest and hum
'-77' BRAINs AND PLUCK.
I had the same chance and every boy
/ OF that time had the same chance. The
| world was all before me where TO choose.
| and Providence my guide. / had the right
| Street and wreck them, to invent a tele-
! phone. to Write Uncle Toms Cabin to
mine for gold and silver. to concoct pat
ent medicines. to corner petroleum. to bun
pork and wheat, like my contemporaries
The only thing I lacked was brains. |
did not know how. So [ went west and
helped to lay the foundations and build
the superstructure of the great empire
Of the Northwest, and thus missed the
And then. too, luck has much to do with
/ success in life. He who leaves the element
| of luck omits one of the important fac
tors in the game The dish of some is
always bottom up when it rains.
The luckiest man of this generation Is
Admiral Dewey He drew double skies
twice in succession at Manila .oo,.
What chance has the poor man IN 1900
About the same, 1 should say, he had fifty
years ago. In some ways rather better
if he can adapt hlmSelI TO the chanSet
conditions of society Many avenues opeI
then are now shut Many opportunities
once free no longer exist Competition 1
more selfish and strenuous. but the Worlt
was never before so ready as now TO PAY
for what e wants. There has been NJ
time when the man or woman who cal
do anything better than anybody else wa:
so sure of constant recognition and re
Paderewsl1i and Irving have Just sale,
/ away with fortunes earned by a lev
| months Of professional exhibition Nine
Y ,
songs that occupied ten minutes. while az
4 / equally meritorious seamstress earns
, | cents for ten hours repulslve toll IN
sweatshop. Kiplirg gets more for sJanz
than Milton for the copyright Of Para
disc Lost Millet and Meissonier de
rived from the brush and the palette tn
revenues of the treasures OF kingdoms.
= SEEING THE OPPORTUNIIY
:, The poor mans chance, then. depend
very much on what the poor man has {
q sell. If his stock in trade consists OF un
4 discomfort he will work for wages. din
from tin bucket when the noon Whlstl
5 blows and die dependent or d mendlcan
d II he have courage. industry, enterprise
5. foresight, luck and the willing mind,
: will gain competence or fortune He Wi
establish his children in comfort. educat
his children and accustom them TO IN
environment of refined habits which, az
: ter all is the best of life
y The real difference in men is not |
r, want of opportunity. but in want of C
pacity to discern opportunity ana poWt
n I to take advantage of opportunity
y Society is REINFORCED from the bottol
fortunes are dispersed, the recruits CON
/, from the farm the forge and the worl
d shop and not from the club and the pa
ace. Those who will control the destlnlt
2 of the Twentieth Century are now BOY
a wearing home-spun and hand-me-down
: and not the gided youth clad in purp
! and fine linen and faring sumptuousl
= every day at Sherry's and Delmonico'
9 This is the poor mans chance. II IS ope
to all corners. It is not matter OF lay
n or statute or politics
Y The election of Bryan or Mckinley wi
q make no difference. Free silver. tar1
= expansion militarism. have nothing to
> with it, What is needed IS some leglsl
ton that will give brains to the brainles
10 thrift to the thriftless. industry to Il
ID irresolute and deseernment. to the foo
L Till this panaeea is discovered the pate
e must minister to himself
n The worst enemy of the poor man. q
= cept himself IS the-trust and of all form
= / of this odious tyranny the most intole
+ able is the labor trust The money tru
r. kills the body: the labor trust kills q
n, soul It destroys the independence of {
in laboring man. effaces his individualit
cancels excellence and substitutes bru
h force for intelligence
~ The right of labor to combine and to
f. fuse to work for wages that enploye
are willing To pay Is undeniable. but VIII
a. strikers organize to prevent others fre
le. taking their places by violence and mt