The Savannah morning news., 1902-06-26
WE LIVE TOO HIGH.
The Poor College Graduates Plight.
and the Politicians.
John Gilmer Speed in Ainslee's.

John Gilmer Speed in AinsIee's.
But what frequently happens to
youth who has gone through Harvard
or Yale or Princeton and is then
thrown OH his own resources without
other income than that which
he can earn? He finds
himself lucky if he can get a
clerkship that pays six hundred dol
lars year. Indeed many Of the banks
pay their junior clerks much less than
this. Only the other day the president
of a bank was deeply grieYed because
a teller who got six hundred year aft
ter seven years service, appropriated
to himself some thousands of dollars
and went to parts as yet undiscovered.
Maybe he was only stalking back pay.
But, | say, that the young chap who
goes into serious life from that ideal
democracy the college, and finds that
he can only keep body and soul to-
gether by that which he earns, while
he sees those who, in his scholastic life,
were his comrades and equals sur
rounded by a luxury that is magnifi-
cent. he cannot help overvaluing that
which is material. and feeling, too,
that wealth is the one and only thing
worth having. All his life he has been
taught that the one thing worth
building up, striving for and maintain
ing was character. And he sees that
though he have the virtues of Saint
Paul or Marcus Aurelius he is a no.
body, an he have not wealth. So the
desire for wealth and the desire for
luxury spoil the aspirations of our
youth and defeat the high purpose of
our intent when we give that which we
can but poorly afford that they may be
educated as well as any others A uni
Verslty man wants to be a member of
the University Club. The dues of that
club would take a major part of the
earnings of the greater number of the
young collegians who have brought
their training and their high character
othe metropolitan market. In the good
old times before the advent in Amer
lea of the luxury which Goldsmith
declares was 'curst by Heavens de-
cree, when young man was finished
at college he set about learning a pro-
tession or a business and gaining a
wife at the same time. When he was
prepared for the one he was ready for
the other. 1t is vastly different now.
for now the youths must begin where
the old folks left off-they must do this
or they lose caste. The whole topsy-
turVy disarrangement of that which is
natural and proper may all be attrib-
uted to that growth of luxury which
is the most marked characteristic of
the age in which we live
In politics, to, we see the evil influ-
ence The business of government in
all ages and all nations has always
been more or less corrupt. When those
who govern must also be Sybarites
and live in gorgeous luxury the poor
people who pay my we'll be pitied In
America our municipal governments
are such rich stores on which the cor
rupt may draw that there is scarcely
an honestly administered city in the
whole of the United States. "A pub
lie man must live up to his prominent
position these rascally freebooters
say, and so they steal with an easy
conscience and live with a vulgar
sumptuousness and a lush luxury
which dazzles those who behold it,
Not only the dishonest are affected by
this necessity for luxury. The public
suffers because the honest man can
not, If he have, not a private fortune,
afford to serve. A congressman who
lives on his pay in Washington must
live in a boarding house or a cheap
hotel. He can afford no luxuries and
still be honest. The same may be said
of cabinet officers. A man without a
fortune cannot afford to take such a
place unless he use it merely as a
stepping stone to more femunerative
employment. Forty years ago Wash
ington was a cheap place and even an
army or a navy officer with his mod
crate means could live up to the re-
quirements of military ethics, and be
a gentleman. 1t may be that a man
can live in a boarding house and be a
| gentleman, for men sometimes have
| vast abilities; but do not believe that
he can do it and feel like a gentleman.
This universal love of luxury makes
the pace too hot. So few can go it that
the laggards, the stragglers and other
| derelicts border the highways and If
| they could grow into trees they would
make continuous and grateful shade.