The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-02-08
GETTING ONLY ONE FORM OF
SUCCESS

AO ~ CSSAI age Is Ou0 VI SuCu SISdC
contradictions and contrasts that we find
difficulty in generalizing about it.. View
Ing the world from the point of view Of
Wall street, we are inclined to conclude
that this is essentially a mammon- wor-
Shipping generation. The same is the view
of the hotel lobby, the smoking-room of
the sleeping car, the counting-room,
the street., But just when we are ready
to utter diatribe against generation
of money grubbers we are checked by a
realization of what Carnegie, and thou
sands of men Of less wealth are doing to
get rid Of their money for the benefit Of
mankind.
Nevertheless, we may safely conclude
that though the ideals of the uses of
wealth may be higher than formerly
among many of the men who have at
tanned fortunes in our time; and though
it is probable that the number Of these
wise rich men will increase rapidly, there
probably never was time in the history
of this businesslike nation when the desire
and the determination to get wealth were
SO universal, and when the popular esti-
mate Of mans sworth was so largely
made up on the score of his bank account.
The poor man has very pronounced feel
ing in these times of mot being in it,"
No matter how the generations to come
may judge us and raise up those among
us who are llumbled in the dust, we all
know that in America the great man is
the man of wealth. He is not, happily,
the man of wealth through inheritance,
for there Is comparatively little popular
admiration for the Vanderbilts and the
Astors, but he is the man who has plunged
into that fascinating arena of business
and industry, which is at once the scene
Of work and happiness to Americans, and
has there by dint Of great strokes and
masterfuI determination won for himself
large share of the wealth created by all.
Outside of the president himself, there
is not statesman in America to-day who
is half so important in the popular mind
as J. j. Hill, J. Pierpont Morgan or Har-
riman. And except it be the presidency
ITSELF nine-tenths of the eager young men
now pushing forward to the firing line
of the zestful battle Of life would prefer
to be such men rather than have any po-
litical office the nation could give them.
In other countries the men of wealth feel
and acknowledge inferiority to the great
statesmen, but in this country our rich
captains of industry look rather con
temptuously down upon mayors and gov
errors, judges and congressman.
We have need of broader meaning of
the word success. We may keep on pro-
ducing the greatest aggregation Of money
makers the world ever knew, but If we do
not learn to respect the achievements OF
scholarship, of science, Of literature, OF
great work, in every department of intel
lectual activity, we shall not produce the
worlds greatest writer's. Its & greatest
scientists, its greatest scholars. We need
to learn, too, the old, old story that
wealth has its limitations and that there
are countless desirable things it can not
buy. That rich man rolling over the
country in his private car would give half
his fortune to enjoy a square meal as does
the section man standing beside the road
as lHe lidlu passes no fWouAu give LAG
other half to be able to find real salts
faction in a great book, to be able to, app
preciate the glories of art, to under-
stand the great principles of science, to
see below the surface of life all that the
learned man sees, to be able to have a
philosophy of life based upon close con-
tact with all the great minds Of the ages,
to realize every day the connection be-
tween the present and the past, to
see the historical connection between
Lexington and Manila, to see how
history is repeating itself In the Boer
factorily and enrichingly on the great
questions of the day, to be able to have
something in his mind besides business.
And this rough outline Of what the un-
educated narrow minded rich man lacks
suggests what the ad-minded, educated
poor man has.
The good tendency Of our times in the
rush for wealth is that many. Of those fore
most in the race desire it not merely for
the sake OF having pile of gold and bank
notes and large credits, but, also, for the
freedom of action and expenditure 1t per-
mits-for the opportunities it gives the
intellectual man to taste Of the joys Of
knowledge. Too often we think of the
rich man as unfit to enjoy the things his
money can give him, and Of the poor man
as fit to enjoy the things that he has not the
necessary money to get. But, If the man
OF taste and culture and education and